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HIGH SCHOOL

ANCIENT HISTORY.

GREECE AND ROME.

CANADIAN EDITION.

BY
P. V. N. MYERS,

Professor of History and Political Economv im the University of

Cincinnati; Author of "MEoiyEVAL and Modern History,"

"A General History," Etc.

^ttthorietb bg the ^cpartmfitt of ^bucation for ©ntario.

TORONTO :

THE COPP, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED.

1901.

Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand
nine hundred and one, by Tub Copp, Clark Company, Limited, Toronto, Ontario,
in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture.

Copyright, 1889, 1902,
By p. V. N. MYERS.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

HISTORY OP GREECE.

CHAPTER. rAGB.

I. The Land and the People I

II. The Legendary or Heroic Age 1 1

III. Religion of the Greeks 23

IV. Age of Constitutional Changes and of Colonization : Growth of

Sparta and of Athens , 35

V. The Graeco-Persian Wars 59

VI. Period of Athenian Supremacy 74

VII. The Peloponnesian War : the Spartan and the Theban Supremacy 91

VIII. Period of Macedonian Supremacy : Empire of Alexander 107

IX. States formed from the Empire of Alexander 122

X. Greek Architecture, Sculpture and Painting 132

XI. Greek Literature 154

XII. Greek Philosophy and Science 1 76

XIII. Social Life of the Greeks 195

HISTORY OP ROME.

I. The Roman Kingdom (Legendary date, 753-509 B.C.) 207

II. The Early Roman Republic : Conquest of Italy {509-264 B.c) . . 227

III. The First Punic War (264-241 B.C.) 248

IV. The Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) 258

V. The Third Punic War (149-146 B.C.) 275

VI. The Last Century of the Roman Republic (133-31 B.C. ) 283

VII. The Last Century of the Roman Republic — concltided(i^y^l^.c.) 299

VIII. The Roman Empire (from 31 B.C. to A.D. i8o) 325

IX. The Roman Empire— <r<7«f/«d5?</; Paganism and Christianity ; the

Barbarian Invasions (a.d. 180-476) 350

X. Architecture, Literature, Law, and Social Life among the Romans 380

Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary — Greece 429

Index and Pronouncing Vocabulary — Rome 437

iii

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

HISTORY OF GREECE.

PAGE.

Themistocles 63

Pericles 84

Alcibiades 96

Head of Alexander the Great iii

Pelasgian Masonry 133

Doric Capital 134

Ionic Capital 1 34

Corinthian Capital 135

Athenian Youth in Procession (from the Frieze of the Parthenon) 138

The Acropolis at Athens (restored) .... 139

The Parthenon (present condition) 140

The Theatre of Dionysus at Athens 141

Choragic Monument of Lysicrates 142

Pitching the Discus or Quoit (Discobolus) 144

Athena Parthenos 145

Head of the Olympian Zeus by Phidias 146

Interior of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia 148

The Laocoon Group 1 50

Homer 156

Bacchic Procession 160

^schylus 163

Sophocles 165

Herodotus 167

Thucydides 169

Demosthenes 1 72

Socrates 182

Plato '. . 183

Aristotle 185

A Greek School (after a vase-painting) 196

Greek Tragic Figure 200

TABLE OF CONTENTS. v

HISTORY OF ROME. page.

The Roman Forum opp. 207

View of the Capitoline, with the Cloaca Maxima 213

Head of Janus 217

A Vestal Virgin 218

Suovetaurilia 221

Lictors 228

Etruscan Archer 237

Roman Soldier 237

Samnite Warrior 243

The Column of Duillius 253

Hannibal 264

Marcellus (coin) 271

Publius Cornelius Scipio 273

Philip V. of Macedonia (coin) 275

Antiochus the Great (coin) 276

Perseus of Macedonia (coin) 277

Coin of the Italian Confederacy 292

Marius 294

Mithradates the Great (coin) 303

Mark Antony 317

Julius Caesar 318

Augustus (statue) 326

Tiberius 330

Coin of Vespasian 338

Triumphal Procession from the Arch of Titus 339

Street in Pompeii . . 340

Trajan 342

Scene from Trajan's Column 343

Hadrian , 344

Antoninus Pius (coin) 346

Commodus 350

Prajtorians 351

Caracalla 353

Triumph of Sapor over Valerian 355

vi TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Diocletian 357

Christ as the Good Shepherd 359

Sarcophagus of Cornelius Scipio Barbatus 378

Ruins of Theatre 382

The Colosseum 383

The Via Appia 385

The Claudian Aqueduct 387

Arch of Constantine . . 392

Cicero 410

Seneca 414

Gladiators 424

LIST OF COLORED MAPS.

Greece and her Colonies 39

Greece in the Fifth Century B.c 91

Dominions and Dependencies of Alexander C.B.C. 323 113

Kingdoms of the Successors of Alexander C.B.C. 3CX3 123

Italy before the Growth of the Roman Power 208

The Mediterranean Lands, at the Beginning of the Second Punic War . . 258

The Roman Dominions, at the End of the Mithradatic War 302

The Roman Empire, at the Death of Augustus 328

The Roman Empire under Trajan 340

The Roman Empire divided into Prefectures 360

LIST OF SKETCH-MAPS.

Athens and the Long Walls 85

Rome under the Kings 214

The Ager Romanus (B.C. 450) 235

The Ager Romanus (B.C. 338) 242

Central Italy, at the Time of the Second Punic War 263

Plan of the Battle of Cannae 268

Rome under the Empire 349

TABLES AND CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARIES.

Grecian History to the Death of Alexander 121

The Seleucidse and Ptolemies 131

Roman History to the End of the Republic 324

The Roman Emperors from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius 348

The Roman Emperors from Commodus to Romulus Augustus 379

HISTORY OF GREECE.
CHAPTER I.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE.

Divisions of Greece. — Long arms of the sea divide the Grecian
peninsula into three parts, called Northern, Central, and Southern
Greece. The southern portion, joined to the mainland by the
Isthmus of Corinth, and now generally known as the Morea, was
called by the ancients the Peloponnesus ; that is, the Island of
Pelops, from its fabled colonizer.

Northern Greece included the ancient districts of Thessaly and
Epirus. Thessaly consists mainly of a large and beautiful valley,
walled in on all sides by rugged mountains. It was celebrated
far and wide for the variety and beauty of its scenery. On its
northern edge, between Olympus and Ossa, lay a beautiful glen,
called the Vale of Tempe, the only pass by which the plain of
Thessaly could be entered from the north. The district of Epirus
stretched along the Ionian Sea on the west. In the gloomy re-
cesses of its forests of oak was situated the renowned Dodonean
oracle of Zeus.

Central Greece was divided into eleven districts. The most
important of these were Acamania, ^tolia, Phocis, Boeotia, and
Attica. In Phocis was the city of Delphi, famous for its oracle
and temple ; in Boeotia, the city of Thebes ; and in Attica was
the briUiant Athens.

Southern Greece, or the Peloponnesus, was also divided into
eleven provinces, of which the more important were Arcadia,
embracing the central part of the peninsula ; Achaia, the northern

£1]

2 MOUNTAINS.

part ; Argolis, the eastern ; and Messenia and Laconia, the south-
ern. The last district was ruled by the city of Sparta, the great
rival of Athens.

Mountains. — The Cambunian Mountains form a lofty wall
along a considerable reach of the northern frontier of Greece,
shutting out at once the cold winds and hostile races from the
north. Branching off at right angles to these mountains is the
Pindus range, which runs south into Central Greece.

In Northern Thessaly is Mount Olympus, the most celebrated
mountain of the peninsula. The ancient Greeks thought it the
highest mountain in the world (it is 9700 feet in height), and
believed that its cloudy summit was the abode of the celestials.

South of Olympus, close by the sea, are Ossa and Pelion, cele-
brated in fable as the mountains which the giants, in their war
against the gods, piled one upon another, in order to scale
Olympus.

Parnassus and Helicon, in Central Greece, — beautiful moun-
tains clad with trees and vines and filled with fountains, — were
believed to be the favorite haunts of the Muses. Near Athens are
Hymettus, praised for its honey, and Pentelicus, renowned for its
marbles.

The Peloponnesus is rugged with mountains that radiate in all
directions from the central country of Arcadia, — " the Switzerland
of Greece."

Islands about Greece. — Very much of the history of Greece
is intertwined with the islands that lie about the mainland. On
the east, in the ^gean Sea, are the Cyclades, so called because
they form an irregular circle about the sacred isle of Delos, where
was a very celebrated shrine of Apollo. Between the Cyclades and
Asia Minor lie the Sporades, which islands, as the name implies,
are sown irregularly over that portion of the .^gean.

Just off the coast of Attica is a large island called by the
ancients Euboea, but known to us as Negropont. Close to the
Asian shores are the large islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and
Rhodes. Chios was widely known as being the home of the

THE LAMD AND THE PEOPLE. 3

alleged descendants of Homer, called the Homerides. Samos
was the birthplace of some of the most distinguished artists and
philosophers that the Greek race produced. Rhodes was noted
for its schools of oratory and sculpture, and its commercial activity.

To the west of Greece lie the Ionian Islands, the largest of
which was called Corcyra, now Corfu. The rugged island of
Ithaca was the birthplace of Ulysses, the hero of the Odyssey.
Cythera, just south of the Peloponnesus, was sacred to Aphrodite
(Venus), as it was here fable said she rose from the sea-foam.
Beyond Cythera, in the Mediterranean, midway between Greece
and Egypt, is the large island of Crete, noted in legend for its
Labyrinth and its legislator Minos.

Other Lands peopled by the Greeks. — Under the name of
Hellas (see p. 4) the ancient Greeks included not only Greece
proper and the islands of the adjoining seas, but also the Hellenic
cities in Asia Minor, in Southern Italy, and in Sicily, besides many
other Grecian colonies scattered up and down the Mediterranean
and along the shores of the Propontis and of the Euxine. " Where-
ever were Hellenes there was Hellas."

In the Western Mediterranean the Greeks came in contact with
a sea-going and colony-planting people like themselves, — the
Phoenicians, — and hence in this quarter they were prevented from
establishing their colonies as thickly as they otherwise would have
done.

During the later periods of Greek dominance, many magnifi-
cent cities, filled with Greek citizens, and characterized by Hel-
lenic manners, language, and religion, were sprinkled thickly over
the different countries of Asia as far as the Indus.

Influence of Country. — The nature and position of a coun-
try, as we have already seen illustrated in the case of Phoenicia,
have much to do with the moulding of the character and the shap-
ing of the history of its people. Mountains, isolating neighboring
communities and shutting out conquering races, foster the spirit of
local patriotism and preserve freedom ; the sea, inviting abroad,
and rendering intercourse with distant countries easy, awakens the
spirit of adventure and develops commercial enterprise.

4 THE PELASGIANS.

Now, Greece is at once a mountainous and a maritime country.
Abrupt mountain-walls fence it off into a great number of isolated
districts, each of which in ancient times became the seat of a
distinct community, or state. Hence the fragmentary character
of its political history. The Hellenic states never coalesced to
form a single nation.

The peninsula is, moreover, by reason of deep arms and bays
of the sea, converted into what is in effect an archipelago. (No
spot in Greece is forty miles from the sea.) Hence its people
were early tempted to a sea-faring life. The shores of the Med-
iterranean and the Euxine were dotted with Hellenic colonies.
Intercourse with the old civilizations of Egypt and Phoenicia
stirred the naturally quick and versatile Greek intellect to early
and vigorous thought. The islands strewn with seeming careless-
ness through the ^Egean Sea were "stepping-stones " which invited
the earliest settlers of Greece to the delightful coast countries of
Asia Minor, and thus blended the Ufe and history of the opposite
shores.

Again, the beauty of Grecian scenery inspired many of the most
striking passages of her poets ; and it is thought that the exhila-
rating atmosphere and brilliant skies of Attica were not unrelated
to the lofty achievements of the Athenian intellect. Indeed, we
may almost assert that the wonderful civilization of Greece was the
product of a land of incomparable and varied beauties acting upon
a people singularly sensitive to the influences of nature (see p. 8).

The Pelasgians. — The historic inhabitants of the land we have
described were called by the Romans Greeks, but they called
themselves Hellenes, from their fabled ancestor Hellen,

But the Hellenes, according to their own account, were not the
original inhabitants of the country. They were preceded by a
people whom they called Pelasgians. Who these folk were, or
what was their relation to the later historic Greeks, is a matter of
debate. Some think they were the Arian^ pioneers in this part of
Europe, and stood in some such relation to the Greeks as the Celts
in Western Europe sustained to the Teutons. Others regard them
^See High School English Grammar, pp. lo, li.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 6

as being simply the prehistoric ancestors of the Hellenes, or of a
part of the Hellenes, just as the Angles and Saxons were the pro-
genitors of the English of to-day. Still others think that the
Pelasgians and Hellenes were kindred tribes, but that the Hel-
lenes, possessing superior qualities, gradually acquired ascendency
over the Pelasgians and finally absorbed them.

The Pelasgians, whoever they may have been, evidently were a
people somewhat advanced beyond the savage state. They culti-
vated the ground, and protected their cities with walls. Remnants
of their rude but massive masonry still encumber in places the soil
of Greece. Their chief deity was the Dodonean Zeus, so called
from his sanctuary of Dodona, in Epirus. He was essentially the
same divinity as the Olympian Zeus of the Greeks.

The Hellenes. — The Hellenes were divided into four families,
or tribes : namely, the lonians, the Dorians, the Achaeans, and the
.^olians.

The lonians were a many-sided, imaginative people, singularly
open to the influences of the outer world. They developed every
part of their nature, and attained unsurpassed excellence in art,
literature, and philosophy. The most noted Ionian city was
Athens, whose story is a large part of the history of Hellas.

The Dorians were a practical, unimaginative race. Their speech
and their art were both alike without ornament. They developed
the body rather than the mind. Their education was almost
wholly gymnastic and military. They were unexcelled as war-
riors. The most important city founded by them was Sparta, the
rival of Athens.

In the different aptitudes and contrasted tendencies of these two
great Hellenic families, lay, in the words of the historian Ranke,
" the fate of Greece." They divided Hellas into two rival parties,
which through their jealousies and contentions finally brought to
utter ruin all the political hopes and promises of the Hellenic
race. ^

The Achaeans are represented by the Greek legends as being
the predominant race in the Peloponnesus during the Heroic Age.

6 THE HELLENES.

They then overshadowed to such a degree all the other tribes as
to cause their name to be frequently used for the Greeks in
general.

The Cohans formed a rather ill-defined division. In historic
times the name is often made to include all Hellenes not enumer-
ated as lonians or Dorians.

AVhen the mists of antiquity are first lifted from Greece, about
the beginning of the eighth century B.C., we discover the several
families of the Hellenic race in possession of Greece proper, of the
islands of the i^gean, and of the western coasts of Asia Minor.
Respecting their prehistoric migrations and settlements, we have
little or no certain knowledge. We do know, however, through the
testimony of language, that they belonged to the great Arian fam-
ily ; that their ancestors and those of the Romans, after they had
separated from the other Arian peoples, lived together a consider-
able time before they parted company ; and finally, that after this
separation all the ancestors of the several divisions, or tribes, of
the Hellenes dwelt together for some time as a single community
before they separated to form the different branches of the Hel-
lenic family.

What region was the abode of the Hellenes while they still con-
stituted an undivided family, we can only conjecture. Some think
that it was Phrygia, in the northwest corner of Asia Minor, and
that from that station successive bands of emigrants gradually
spread themselves over Greece and the shores and islands of the
iEgean.

The last companies to leave the Phrygian home appear to have
been the ancestors of the lonians and Dorians. In the opinion of
some, the lonians followed the course of the Phrygian rivers to the
coast, and, after having there developed into a sea-loving people,
passed over to continental Greece by way of the ^gean islands ;
while the Dorians crossed the Hellespont into Europe, and, after
living for a while as farmers and shepherds in the hilly regions of
Macedonia or Northern Greece, pushed southward, in time estab-
lishing themselves as the dominant race in the Peloponnesus.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 7

Others, however, are inclined to believe that all the Hellenes
entered Greece by the way of Thrace.

Oriental Immigrants. — According to their own traditions the
early growth of civilization among the European Hellenes was
promoted by the settlement among them of Oriental immigrants,
who brought with them the arts and culture of the different coun-
tries of the East.

From Egypt, legend affirms, came Cecrops, bringing with him
the arts, learning, and priestly wisdom of the Nile valley. He
is represented as the builder of the citadel (the Cecropia) of what
was, afterwards the illustrious city of Athens. From the same land
Danaus is also said to have come with his fifty daughters, and to
have built the citadel of Argos. From Phoenicia Cadmus brought
the letters of the alphabet, and founded the city of Thebes. The
Phrygian Pelops, the progenitor of the renowned heroes Agamem-
non and Menelaus, settled in the southern peninsula, which was
called after him the Peloponnesus (the Island of Pelops) .

The nucleus of fact in all these legends is probably this, — That
the European Greeks received the primary elements of their cul-
ture from the East through their Asiatic kinsmen. That they did
in this manner receive at least many of the rudiments of their civil-
ization does not admit of doubt. For at the very time that the
Ionian Greeks were spreading themselves over the western coast
of Asia Minor and the islands of the Archipelago, the Phoenicians
were establishing their colonies in Crete and along the Asian
shores, and carrying with them the arts and culture of Egypt and
Babylonia. At the same time the Hittites also, having extended
their power throughout Asia Minor, were spreading the civilization
of the Euphrates to the shores of the ^Egean.

Thus the Asiatic Greeks were early brought into contact with
the civilization of the East ; that they profited by the contact is
shown by the fact that among them appeared the first-fruits of
Hellenic art and thought. These new germs of culture, vitalized
by their own quickening genius, the Oriental Greeks transmitted to
their kinsmen in Europe, where they were destined, in the favor-

8 THE GREEK GENIUS.

ing soil of Attica, to produce the crowning flower of Hellenic civil-
ization.

The Greek Genius. — That what has just been said respecting
the transmission of the primary elements of Greek culture from
the Orient, may not leave a wrong impression upon the mind of
the student, — leading him to suppose that in the old civilizations
of the East he has found the chief sources of Hellenic civiliza-
tion,— we must here say, that the most profound students of
Greek history believe that the chief factor after all in the won-
derful product we call Greek civiUzation, was the Greek genius
itself.

For it is with races as with individuals. Men of an extraordi-
nary personality are not the product of education or of circum-
stances. They are born, not made. It is the mental aptitudes of
the Hellenes, that original, versatile, imaginative genius, that
love of the beautiful and sense of proportion, that sensitiveness to
the influences of nature which we have already mentioned as
characterizing the Ionian Greeks above all others, — it is these
rare mental qualities, gained we know not how, which the Greeks
possessed when they entered the lands they occupied in historic
times, that afford the "only satisfactory explanation of their won-
derful achievements in art, in literature, and in philosophy. With-
out the quickening power of the Greek genius, the germs of
culture transmitted to the West from the East would have lain dor-
mant, or have developed into less perfect and less admirable
forms. It was a case of good seed falling into good ground —
and it brought forth a hundred-fold.

Local Patriotism of the Greeks : the City the Political Unit.
— The narrow political sympathies of the ancient Greeks pre-
vented their ever uniting to form a single nation. The city was
with them the political unit. It was regarded as a distinct, self-
governing state, just like a modem nation. A citizen of one
city was an aUen in any other : he could not marry a woman of a
city not his own, nor hold property in houses or lands within its
territory.

THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 9

But the Greek idea of a city was quite different from ours. An
ancient Greek city included primarily nothing more than a terri-
torial area, or district. Thus the districts, or townships, of Arca-
dia had applied to them the Greek word (ttoAis) for city.

However, a district sprinkled with isolated dwellings or unpro-
tected villages did not constitute an idedl city. There must be
included in the district a walled town, containing public buildings,
such as theatres, temples, agoras, and gymnasia. Often the city
consisted simply of a walled town, with a few surrounding farms,
a strip of sea-coast, or a small mountain-encircled valley or plain.
In other cases, the city embraced, besides the central town, a
large number of smaller places. Thus the city of Athens, in its
most prosperous days, included all Attica with its one hundred
and seventy- four villages and towns, some of which were walled
places. Each of these villages, politically speaking, was an inte-
gral part of Athens, and those of their inhabitants who enjoyed
the privilege of voting in the public assembly at the capital
were Athenian citizens.

According to the Greek conception, again, the model city (or
state, as we should say) must not be over large. In this, as in
everything else, the ancient Greeks applied the Delphian rule —
" Measure in all things." " A small city," says one of their
poets, " set upon a rock and well governed, is l3etter than all fool-
ish Nineveh." Aristotle thought that the ideal city should not
have more than ten thousand citizens. According to this,
Athens was too large for a model city, as its list of citizens
numbered at one time somewhere between twenty and thirty
thousand.

Hellenes and Barbarians. — While the narrow political sympa-
thies of the ancient Greeks separated them into numerous petty
city-states, and prevented the various Hellenic tribes from ever
coalescing into a real nation, still the bonds of race, of language,
and of religion tended to draw them all together into a sort of
fraternal union, or brotherhood. They always regarded themselves
as members of a single family : all were descended, according to

10 HELLENES AND BARBARIANS.

their fabled genealogy, from the common progenitor Hellen.^ All
non-Hellenic peoples they called Barbarians. At first this term
scarcely meant more than " unintelligible folk," carrying with it no
intimation of lack of culture in the people to whom it was
applied. But later, when the Greeks became conscious of their
intellectual superiority to their neighbors, it came to express not
simply aversion to a foreign tongue, but contempt founded upon
inferiority.

^ According to the mythical genealogy of the Greeks, Hellen (son of
Deucalion, the Grecian Noah) had three sons, /Eolus, Dorus, and Xuthus.
^Eolus and Dorus were the ancestors respectively of the /Eolians and Dorians.
Xuthus had two sons, Ion and Achaeus, the first the progenitor of the
lonians, and the second of the Achseaos,

THE LEGENDARY OR HEROIC AGE. 11

CHAPTER II.

THE LEGENDARY OR HEROIC AGE.

(From the earliest times to 776 B.C.)

Character of the Legendary Age. — The real history of the
Greeks does not begin before the eighth century B.C. All that hes
back of that date is an inseparable mixture of myth, legend, and
fact. Yet this shadowy period forms the background of Grecian
history, and we cannot understand the ideas and acts of the
Greeks of historic times without some knowledge, at least, of
what they believed their ancestors did and experienced in those
prehistoric ages.

So, as a sort of prelude to the story we have to tell, we shall
repeat some of the legends of the Greeks respecting their national
heroes and their great labors and undertakings. But it must be
carefully borne in mind that these legends are not history. Where,
however, there seems to be sufficient ground to justify an opinion,
we shall suggest what may be the grain of truth in any particular
legend, or what part of it may be a dim though confused remem-
brance of actual events.

The Heroes: Heracles, Theseus, and Minos. — The Greeks
believed that their ancestors were a race of heroes of divine or
semi-divine lineage. Every tribe, district, city, and village even,
preserved traditions of its heroes, whose wonderful exploits were
commemorated in song and story. Many of these personages
acquired national renown, and became the revered heroes of the
whole Greek race.

The heroes were doubtless, in some cases, historical persons,
but so much of myth and fable has gathered about their names

12 THE HEROES: HERACLES, THESEUS, AND MINOS.

that it is impossible to separate that which is really historical from
what is purely fabulous.

Among the most noted of the heroes are Heracles (commonly
called Hercules) , Theseus, and Minos.

Heracles, who sprang from the royal line established at Argos
by Danaus (see p. 7), was the greatest of the national heroes of
the Greeks. He is represented as performing, besides various other
exploits, twelve superhuman labors, — among which were the slay-
ing of the Nemean lion, the destruction of the Lerngean hydra,
the cleansing of the stables of Augeas, and the bringing of Cer-
berus from the infernal regions, — and as being at last translated
from a blazing pyre to a place among the immortal gods.

The myth of Heracles is made up mainly of the very same fables
that were told of the Chaldcean solar hero Izdubar (Gisdhubar).
Through the Phoenicians and the peoples of Asia Minor, these
stories found their way to the Greeks, who ascribed to their own
Heracles the deeds of the Chaldaean sun-god. Like the Babylo-
nian Izdubar, Heracles was at first a solar divinity ; but, trans-
formed and idealized by the Greek imagination, he became at last
the personification and ideal type of the lofty moral qualities of
heroism, self-sacrifice, and endurance, as well as the symbol of
the bravery, sufferings, and achievements of the pioneers of Greek
civilization.

Theseus, a descendant of Cecrops, was the favorite hero of the
Athenians, being one of their legendary kings. Among his great
works were the clearing of the Isthmian highways of robbers, the
slaying of the Minotaur, — a monster which Minos, king of Crete,
kept in a labyrinth, and fed upon youths and maidens sent from
Athens as a forced tribute, — the defeat of the Amazons, and the
consolidation of the twelve boroughs, or cantons, of Attica into a
single state.

The legend of Theseus doubtless contains a substantial kernel
of history. The consolidation of Attica and the founding of
Athens were certainly historical events, while the slaying of the
Minotaur may be taken to symbolize the freeing of the Athenians

THE LEGENDARY OR HEROIC AGE. 13

from a tribute paid to the Phoenicians of Crete, whose custom of
sacrificing children to Moloch probably lent to the myth its pecu-
liar form.

Minos, who has already been mentioned as the king of Crete,
was one of the great tribal heroes of the Dorians. Legend makes
him a legislator of divine wisdom, the suppressor of piracy in the
Grecian seas, and the founder of the first great maritime state of
Hellas.

Associated Undertakings of the Heroes. — Besides the labors
and exploits of single heroes, such as we have been naming, the
legends of the Greeks tell of three especially memorable enter-
prises which were conducted by bands of heroes. These were the
Argonautic Expedition, the Seven against Thebes, and the Siege
of Troy.

The Argonautic Expedition. — The tale of this enterprise is
told with many variations in the legends of the Greeks. Jason, a
prince of Thessaly, with fifty companion heroes, among whom were
Heracles, Theseus, and Orpheus, the latter a musician of super-
human skill, the music of whose lyre moved brutes and stones, set
sail in "a fifty-oared galley," called the Argo (hence the name
Argonauts, given to the heroes), in search of a " golden fleece "
which was fabled to be nailed to a tree and watched by a dragon,
in the Grove of Ares, on the eastern shores of the Euxine, an
inhospitable region of unknown terrors. The expedition is suc-
cessful, and, after many wonderful adventures, the heroes return
in triumph with the sacred relic.

Different meanings have been given to this tale. In its primi-
tive form it was doubtless a pure myth of the rain-clouds ; but in
its later forms we may believe it to symbolize the maritime explo-
rations in the eastern seas, of some of the tribes (conjecturally the
Minyans, of Orchomenus in Bceotia) of Pelasgian Greece.

The Seven against Thebes. — The story of the War of the
Seven against Thebes is second in interest and importance only to
that of the Siege of Troy. The tale begins with Laius, king of
Thebes, — the third in descent from Cadmus, — who, having been

U THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.

warned by an oracle that he would be slain by his own son, should
one be bom to him, thought to prevent the fulfilment of the pre-
diction by causing his infant child to be exposed on Mount Cithae-
ron. The child was rescued by a herdsman, and brought up by
the king of Corinth, having been given the name of CEdipus.

Upon reaching manhood, CEdipus went to the oracle at Delphi
to make inquiry respecting his parentage. The only answer he
received was a warning not to return to his native country, or 61se
he would kill his father and become the husband of his own
mother. Therefore, avoiding Corinth, CEdipus turned towards
Thebes, but on the way met Laius with an attendant, and in a
quarrel which arose killed the king, not knowing him to be his
father.

Shortly after this event the Thebans were distressed by a
woman-headed monster, called the Sphinx, who proposed a rid-
dle ' to them, and, as often as they failed in their answers, seized
and devoured one of the inhabitants of the city. The crown of
Thebes and the hand of the widow (Jocasta) of Laius were offered
to any one who should solve the riddle. CEdipus interpreted the
riddle, and became king of Thebes and the husband of Jocasta.
Thus the oracle was fulfilled.

Because of the unwitting crime, a terrible doom overhangs the
royal house. The truth finally becomes known. Jocasta hangs her-
self. CEdipus, in a frenzy of agony, tears out his own eyes. His
sons, Eteocles, and Polynices drive him from Thebes, and upon
them he invokes the curses of Heaven. The unhappy king is
accompanied in his exile by his daughters Antigone and Ismene.

The brothers now quarrel respecting the throne. Polynices flees
to Argos, and seeks aid of Adrastus, king of that city. With five
chiefs besides himself and Polynices, Adrastus makes war upon
Thebes. All the heroes except Adrastus are killed (if we may
thus speak of one, Amphiaraus, whom the opening earth received

1 " What animal walks on four legs in the morning, on two at noon, and
on three at night?" Answer: man, who creeps in infancy, walks upright in
manhood, and supports his steps with a staff in old age.

THE LEGENDARY OR HEROIC AGE. 15

unharmed into the world of shades), while the two unnatural
brothers also fall, each by the hand of the other.

Kreon, the new king of Thebes, refuses to allow Adrastus to
bury or burn the bodies of his fallen companions. In his distress,
Adrastus supplicates Theseus, king of Athens, to avenge the \vrong,
— for a denial of the rites of sepulture was considered by the
Greeks a most impious act. Theseus makes war upon the king of
Thebes, overcomes him, and secures burial honors for the bodies
of the slain heroes.

Ten years after the unsuccessful attempt of the seven chieftains,
the sons of those who were lost, headed, according to one account,
by Adrastus, and, according to others, by Thersander, the son of
Polynices, waged a second war against Thebes, to avenge the death
of their fathers. They took the city and destroyed it. This ex-
pedition was known as the War of the Descendants (Epigoni).

This legend branches out into a hundred tales, which form the
basis of many of the greatest productions of the Greek tragic
poets.

The Trojan War (legendary date 1194-1184 b.c). — The
Trojan War was an event about which gathered a great circle of
tales and poems, all full of an undying interest and fascination.
Homer, in his great epic of the Iliad, and a host of succeeding
writers called the cychc poets, rehearsed, with a charm of lan-
guage and beauty of imagery never surpassed, the feats of the
struggling heroes, Greek and Trojan, beneath the walls of Ilios.

Ilios, or Troy, was the capital of a strong empire, represented
as Grecian in race and language, which had grown up in Asia
Minor, along the shores of the Hellespont. The traditions tell
how Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, visited the Spartan king
Menelaus, and ungenerously requited his hospitahty by secretly
bearing away to Troy his wife Helen, famous for her rare beauty.

All the heroes of Greece flew to arms to avenge the wrong. A
host of one hundred thousand warriors was speedily gathered.
Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and "king of men," was chosen
leader of the expedition. Under him were the "lion-hearted

U THE TROJAN WAR.

Achilles," of Thessaly, the "crafty Ulysses" (Odysseus), king of
Ithaca, Ajax, " the swift son of Oileus," the Telemonian Ajax, the
aged Nestor, and many more — the most valiant heroes of all
Hellas. Twelve hundred galleys bore the gathered clans from
Aulis, in Greece, across the ^gean to the Trojan shores.

For ten years the Greeks and their allies hold in close siege the
city of Priam. The Trojans have as allies many of the states of
Asia Minor, as well as warriors from more remote lands. On the
plains beneath the walls of the capital, the warriors of the two
armies fight in general battle, or contend in single encounter. At
first, Achilles is foremost in every fight ; but a fair-faced maiden,
who fell to him as a prize, having been taken from him by his
chief, Agamemnon, he is filled with wrath, and sulks in his tent.
Though the Greeks are often sorely pressed, still the angered hero
refuses them his aid. At last, however, his friend Patroclus is
killed by Hector, eldest son of Priam, and then Achilles goes forth
to avenge his death. In a fierce combat he slays Hector, fastens
his body to his chariot wheels, and drags it thrice around the walls
of Troy.

These latter events, beginning with the wrath of Achilles and
ending with the funeral rites of Patroclus and Hector, form the
subject of the Iliad of Homer.

The city is at last taken through a device of the " crafty Ulys-
ses." Upon the plain in sight of the walls is built a wooden statue
of a horse, in the body of which are hidden several Grecian war-
riors. Then the Greeks retire to their ships, as though about to
abandon the siege. The Trojans issue from their gates and gather
in wondering crowds about the image. They believe it to be an
offering sacred to Athena, and so dare not destroy it ; but, on the
other hand, misled by certain omens and by a lying Greek named
Sinon, they level a place in the walls of their city, and drag the
statue within. At night the concealed warriors issue from the
horse, open the gates of the city to the Grecians, and Troy is
sacked and burned to the ground. The aged Priam is slain, after
having seen his sons and many of his warriors perish before his

THE LEGENDARY OR HEROIC AGE. 17

face, ^neas, \v'ith his aged father Anchises, and a few devoted
followers, escapes, and, after long wanderings by land and by sea,
becomes the fabled founder of the Roman race in Italy.

It is a matter of difficulty to point out the nucleus of fact in
this the most elaborate and interesting of the Grecian legends.
Some believe it to be the dim recollection of a prehistoric con-
flict between the Greeks and the natives of Asia Minor, arising
from the attempt of the former to secure a foothold upon the
coast. As, at the time of the composition of the Iliad, the coast
was in the possession of Greeks, the Trojans are represented as
Greeks, in order that the descriptions may correspond to the then
existing state of things.

That there really existed in prehistoric times such a city as
Troy, or Ilios, has been placed beyond doubt by the excavations
and discoveries of Dr. Schliemann.^

Return of the Grecian Chieftains. — After the fall of Troy, the
Grecian chieftains and princes returned home. The poets repre-
sent the gods as withdrawing their protection from the hitherto
favored heroes, because they had not spared the altars of the Tro-
jans. So, many of them were driven in endless wanderings over
sea and land. Homer's Odyssey portrays the sufferings of the
" much-enduring " Ulysses, impelled by divine wrath to long jour-
neyings through strange seas.

In some cases, according to the tradition, advantage had been
taken of the absence of the princes, and their thrones had been
usurped. Thus at Argos, ^gisthus had won the unholy love of
Clytemnestra, wife and queen of Agamemnon, who on his return
was murdered by the guilty couple. In pleasing contrast with this
we have exhibited to us the constancy of Penelope, although sought
by many suitors during the absence of her husband Ulysses.

The Dorian Invasion, or the Return of the Heraclidae (leg-
endary date 1 104 B.C.). — We set the tradition of the return of
the Heraclidae apart from the legends of the three enterprises just
detailed, for the reason that it undoubtedly contains quite a large

^ See his Ilios and Troja.

18 THE DORIAN INVASION.

historical element. It seems to be a remembrance, though a con-
fused one, of a real migration and conquest, and of a resulting
shifting of the population of prehistoric Greece.

The traditions of the Greeks tell how Heracles, an Achsean, in
the times before the Trojan War, ruled over the Peloponnesian
Achaeans. Just before that event his children were driven from
the land. Eighty years after the war, the hundred years of exile
appointed by the fates having expired, the descendants of the
hero, at the head of the Dorians from Northern Greece, returned,
and with their aid effected the conquest of the greater part of the
Peloponnesus, and established themselves as conquerors and mas-
ters in the land that had formerly been ruled by their semi-divine
ancestor.

This return of the descendants of Heracles to the land of their
fathers has been likened to the return of the children of Israel to
Palestine, and the conquest of that land by them on the ground of
an ancient claim to the country through their ancestor Abraham.

The nucleus of fact in this legend of the return of the Hera-
clidae, as we have already said, is doubtless a prehistoric invasion
of the Peloponnesus by the Dorians from the north of Greece, and
the expulsion or subjugation of the native inhabitants of the penin-
sula. The entire movement prouably occupied several centuries.

The Dorians established in the different districts of which they
took possession aristocratic and military governments, and devel-
oped, generally, social and political systems characterized by
austere and martial discipline.

Towards their conquerors, the subjected Achaeans cherished an
inextinguishable hatred, save in some parts where the two races
appear to have quietly blended, and the distinctive relation of
conqueror and conquered seems to have been almost wholly oblit-
erated. Some of the dispossessed Achgeans, crowding towards the
north of the Peloponnesus, drove out the lonians who occupied
the southern shore of the Corinthian Gulf, and setding there, gave
the name Achaia to all that region.

Arcadia, in the center of the Peloponnesus, was another district

THE LEGENDARY OR HEROIC AGE. 19

which did not fall into the hands of the Dorians. The people
here, even down to the latest times, retained their primitive cus-
toms and country mode of life ; hence Arcadian came to mean
rustic and artless.

Migrations to Asia Minor. — The Greek legends represent that
the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnesus resulted in three distinct
migrations from the mother land to the shores of Asia Minor
and the adjoining islands.

The northwestern shore of Asia Minor was settled by -^olian
emigrants from Boeotia, among whom were many Achaean refugees
from the Peloponnesus.^ The neighboring island of Lesbos became
the home and center of ^olian culture in poetry and music.

The coast to the south of the Cohans was occupied by Ionian
emigrants from the neighborhood of the Corinthian Gulf, who,
uniting with their Ionian kinsmen already settled upon that shore,
built up twelve splendid cities (Ephesus, Miletus, etc.), which
finally united to form the celebrated Ionian confederacy.

South of the lonians, all along the southwestern shore of Asia
Minor, the Dorians established their colonies. They also settled
the important islands of Cos and Rhodes, and conquered and
colonized Crete.

The traditions relating to these various settlements represent
them as having been effected in a very short period ; but it is
probable that the movement embraced several centuries, — possi-
bly a longer time than has been occupied by the English race in
colonizing the different lands of the Western World.

With the migrations of the .^olians, lonians, and Dorians to the
Asiatic shores, the Legendary Age of Greece comes to an end.
From this time forAvard we tread upon fairly firm historic ground.

^ Curtius believes that the struggle which must inevitably have arisen
between these emigrants and the inhabitants of the Asiatic coast may have
been the basis of the story of the Trojan War. " We are justified," he says,
" in transferring this war out of its isolation, in which it remains incomprehen-
sible, into a wider connection of events, and out of the poetic times, whither
it was carried by song, into its actual period."

20 SOCIETY IN THE HEROIC AGE.

Society in the Heroic Age. — While it is true that the legend-
ary stories and poems of the Greeks cannot be received as reliable
accounts of real events, still they may be regarded as reflecting
with very great accuracy the manners, customs, and general cul-
ture of the time in which they had their origin. The poems of
Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which were composed proba-
bly as early as the eighth or ninth century B.C., are the chief
sources whence are drawn the materials from which historians
venture to form a picture of Greek society in the Heroic Age. It
remains for us to add a few words upon this subject to complete
our sketch of legendary Greece.

In Homeric times the Greeks were ruled by hereditary kings,
who were believed to be of divine or superhuman lineage. The
king was at once the lawgiver, the judge, and the military leader
of his people. He was expected to prove his divine right to rule,
by his courage, strength, wisdom, and eloquence. When he ceased
to display these qualities, " the sceptre departed from him."

The king was surrounded by a council {boule) of chiefs or
nobles. This council, however, was simply an advisory body.
The king listened to what the nobles had to say upon any meas-
ure he might propose, and then acted according to his own will
or judgment, restrained only by the time-honored customs of the
community.

Next to the council of the chiefs, there was a general assembly,
called the Agora, made up of all the common freemen. The
members of this body could not take part in any debate, nor
could they vote upon any question. They were called together
to hear matters discussed by the king and his chiefs, that they
might know what was resolved upon, and perhaps learn the argu-
ments for and against the resolution. This body, so devoid seem-
ingly of all authority in the Homeric age, was destined to become
the all-powerful popular assembly in the democratic cities of his-
toric Greece.

Of the condition of the common freemen we know but little :
the legendary tales were concerned chiefly with the kings and

THE LEGENDARY OR HEROIC AGE. 21

nobles. We are certain, however, that the well-to-do class
owned their farms, and cultivated them with their own hands ;
and that the poorer class labored for hire on the estates of the
nobles. Slavery existed, but the slaves did not constitute as
numerous a class as they became in historic times, nor do they
seem in general to have been treated harshly.

In the family, the wife holds a much more dignified and honored
position than she occupied in later times. The charming story of
the constant Penelope, which we find in the Odyssey, assures us
that the Homeric age cherished a chivalric feeling for woman.

In all ranks of society life was marked by a sort of patriarchal
simpUcity. Manual labor was not yet thought to be degrading.
Ulysses constructs his own house and raft, and boasts of his skill
in swinging the scythe and guiding the plow. Spinning and weav-
ing were the chief occupation of the women of all classes.

One pleasing and prominent virtue of the age was hospitality.
There were no public inns in those times, hence a sort of gentle
necessity forced to the entertainment of wayfarers. The hospi-
tality accorded was the same free and impulsive welcome that the
Arab sheik of to-day extends to the traveller whom chance brings
to his tent. The belief, too, that the gods sometimes visited the
earth in the guise of men also prompted, in early times, the
kindly reception of strangers, since thereby angels might haply be
entertained unawares. The very best the house afforded was set
before the wayfarer, and not till he had refreshed himself was he
asked as to his journey and its object. When thus by chance a per-
son, even though of another race, became the guest of a Greek,
this circumstance made him, as it were, a kinsman, and henceforth
a new relation subsisted between those thus casually brought to-
gether. One seeking a fivor of another might claim that their
ancestors had broken bread together, and the appeal was sacred,
and seldom made in vain.

But while hospitable, the nobles of the heroic age were often
cruel, violent, and treacherous. Homer represents his heroes as
committing without a blush all sorts of frauds and villanies.

22 SOCIETY IN THE HEROIC AGE.

Piracy was considered an honorable occupation. " It was cus-
tomary in welcoming a stranger to ask him whether his object in
travelling was to enrich himself by piracy, just as we might to-day
ask a person whether his object be to enrich himself by mercantile
speculation."

Art and architecture were in a rudimentary state. Yet some
advance had been made. The cities were walled, and the pal-
aces of the kings possessed a certain barbaric splendor. Coined
money was unknown ; wealth was reckoned chiefly in flocks and
herds, and in uncoined metals. The art of writing was probably
unknown, at least there is no certain mention of it ; and sculpture
could not have been in an advanced state, as the Homeric poems
make no mention of statues. Commerce was yet in its infancy.
Although the Greeks were to become a great maritime people,
still in the Homeric age they had evidently explored the sea but
little. The Phoenicians then ruled the waves, and were the inter-
mediaries of the Mediterranean world. The Greeks in those early
times knew but little of the world beyond Greece proper and the
neighboring islands and shores. Scarcely an echo of the din of
life from the then ancient and mighty cities of Egypt and Chaldaea
seems to have reached their ears.

RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. 23

CHAPTER Til.

RELIGION OF THE GREEKS.

Introductory. — Without at least some little knowledge of the
Beligious ideas and institutions of the ancient Greeks, we should
find very many passages of their history wholly unintelligible.
Hence a few remarks in regard to these matters will be here in
place. We shall begin with a word respecting the cosmography
of the Greeks, or their ideas of the figure and relation of the dif-
ferent parts of the universe.

Cosmography of the Greeks. — The Greeks supposed the earth
to be, as it appears, a plane, round in form like a shield. Around
it flowed the " mighty strength of the ocean river," a stream broad
and deep, beyond which on all sides lay realms of Cimmerian
darkness and terror. From this encircling ocean stream, all the
rivers and seas of the earth drew their waters. The heavens were
a solid vault, or dome, whose edge shut down close upon the earth.

Beneath the earth, reached by subterranean passages, was
Hades, a vast region, the realm of departed shades. Still beneath
this was Tartarus, a pit deep and dark, made fast by strong gates
of brass and iron. This awful prison-house of the Titans was as far
beneath the earth as the heavens were above ; and of the latter
distance we are left to conjecture from the fact that when Zeus, in
a fit of anger, hurled Hephaestus from the heavens to earth, he
fell "from morn to noon, from noon to dewy eve." Sometimes
the poets represent the gloomy regions beyond the ocean stream,
as the cheerless abode of the dead.^

^ These conceptions belong to the early period of Greek mythology. Later,
when the geographical ideas of the Greeks had become more expanded, and
their moral feelings had grown stronger, the topography of the under-world

2i THE OLYMPIAN COUNCIL.

The sun was an archer-god, borne in a fiery chariot up and
down the steep pathway of the skies. Awaiting the god in the
west, on the ocean stream, was a winged couch, in which he sank
to rest while gentle winds wafted the golden vessel over the waters
round to the east, where a new chariot and fresh steeds awaited
him. Naturally it was imagined that the regions in the extreme
east and west, which were bathed in the near splendors of the sun-
rise and the sunset, were lands of delight and plenty. The east-
em was the favored country of the Ethiopians, a land which even
Zeus himself so loved to visit that often he was found absent from
Olympus when sought by suppliants. The western region, ad-
joining the ocean stream, was the delightful Garden of the Hes-
perides. Here, too, were the Islands of the Blest (Elysium), the
abodes of the shades of heroes and poets.

The Olympian Council. — There were twelve members of the
celestial council, six gods and as many goddesses. The male
deities were Zeus, the father and ruler of gods and men, and the
wielder of the thunderbolts ; Poseidon, ruler of the sea ; Apollo,
or Phoebus, the god of light, of music, of healing, of poetry, and
of prophecy ; Ares, the god of war ; Hephaestus, the deformed
god of fire, and the patron of the useful arts dependent upon it,
the forger of the thunderbolts of Zeus, and the fashioner of arms
and of all sorts of metal work for the heroes and the gods ;
Hermes, the wing-footed herald of the celestials, the god of
invention and of commerce, himself a thief and the patron of
thieves.

The female divinities were Hera, the proud and rightly jealous
queen of Zeus ; Athena, or Pallas, — who sprang full-grown from

was considerably modified. Hades (at first called Erebus) was now con-
ceived as consisting of two vast regions, Tartarus and Elysium, the former
having been brought up from beneath and made the place of punishment for
the souls of evil men, and the latter having been taken down from the western
region of the earth (see above), and made the happy abode of all the right-
eous. See Keightley's Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy, pp. 80, 81,
fourth edition.

RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. 25

the forehead of Zeus, — the goddess of wisdom, and the patroness
of the domestic arts ; Artemis, the goddess of the chase ; Aphro
dite, the goddess of love and beauty, born of the sea-foam ; Hes-
tia, the goddess of the hearth ; Demeter, the earth-mother, the
goddess of grains and harvests.^

Lesser Deities and Monsters. — Besides the great gods and
goddesses that constituted the Olympian Council, there was an
almost infinite number of other deities, celestial personages, and
monsters neither human nor divine.

Hades (Pluto) ruled over the lower realms ; Dionysus (Bac-
chus) was the god of wine; Eros (Cupid), of love; Iris was the
goddess of the rainbow, and the special messenger of Zeus ; Hebe
(goddess) was the cupbearer of the celestials; the goddess
Nemesis was the punisher of crime, and particularly the queller of
the proud and arrogant ; ^olus was the ruler of the winds, which
he confined in a cave secured by mighty gates.

There were nine Muses, inspirers of art and song. ^ The
Nymphs (Naiads, Nereids, Dryads, Hamadryads, etc.) were beau-
tiful maidens, who peopled the woods, the fields, the rivers, the
lakes, and the ocean. Three Fates allotted life and death, and
three Furies (Eumenides, or Erinnyes) avenged crime, especially
murder and unnatural crimes. The Harpies were terrible mon-
sters with female faces and the bodies and claws of birds. They
were sisters, three in number, and lived on the Strophades, in the
Ionian Sea. They tore and devoured their prey with greedy
voracity. The Gorgons were also three sisters, with hair entwined
with serpents. A single gaze upon them chilled the beholder to

^ The Latin names of these divinities are as follows : Zeus = Jupiter ;
Poseidon = Neptune ; Apollo = Apollo ; Ares — Mars; Hephaestus = Vulcan;
Hermes = Mercury ; Hera = Juno ; Athena = Minerva ; Artemis = Diana;
Aphrodite = Venus ; Hestia = Vesta ; Demeter = Ceres.

These Latin names, however, are not the equivalents of the Greek names,
and should not be used as such. The mythologies of the Hellenes and
Romans were as distinct as their languages. Consult Rawlinson's Religions
of the Ancient World,

26 EXPLANATION OF THE MYTHOLOGICAL MONSTERS.

Stone. The Chimaera was a monster with " the head of a lion, the
body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent, and vomited forth fire."
(From this impossible monster we have come to call any improba-
ble thing a "chimera.") Besides these there were the Dragon,
which guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides ; Cerberu?,
the watch-dog of Hades ; Scylla and Charybdis, sea-monsters that
made perilous the passage of the Sicilian Straits ; the Centaurs,
the Cyclops, the Sphinx, and a thousand others.

Explanations of the Mythological Monsters. — Many at least
of these monsters were simply personifications of the human pas-
sions or of the malign and destructive powers of nature. Thus,
according to some interpreters, the Furies were the embodiment
of an aroused and accusing conscience ; the Harpies were the
swift storms, that tear to pieces and ingulf the vessel of the mari-
ner ; the Gorgons were also tempests, which lash the sea into a fury
that paralyzes the affrighted sailor ; the Chimaera was a volcano
in Lycia, whose foot and slopes abounded in different animals
(the Chimaera flame is still seen issuing from a mountain oppo-
site Olympus) ; Scylla and Charybdis were dangerous whirlpools
off the coast of Sicily.

The fact that these monsters were merely personifications of
human feeUngs or of the evil and terrifying powers or aspects of
nature was, indeed, forgotten, or not understood at all, by the com-
mon people ; they believed them to be real creatures, with all the
parts and habits given them by the poets, — a-^d often the poets
themselves seemed possessed of the same idea.

Nature of the Gods. — The great gods and goddesses were
simply magnified human beings, possessing all their virtues, and
often their weaknesses. They give way to fits of anger and jeal-
ousy. " Zeus deceives, and Hera (Juno) is constantly practising
her wiles." All the celestial council, at the sight of Heph^stus
limping across the palace floor, burst into " inextinguishable laugh-
ter " ; and Aphrodite, weeping, moves all to tears. They surpass
mortals rather in power, than in size of body. They can render
themselves visible or invisible to human eyes. Their food is am-

RELIGION OF THE GREEK'S. 27

brosia and nectar ; their movements are swift as light. They may
suffer pain ; but death can never come to them, for they are im-
mortal. Their abode is Mount Olympus and the airy regions
above the earth.

Modes of Divine Communication. — In the early ages the gods
were wont, it was believed, to visit the earth and mingle with men.
But even in Homer's time this familiar intercourse was a thing of
the past — a tradition of a golden age that had passed away. Their
forms were no longer seen, their voices no longer heard. In these
later and more degenerate times the recognized modes of divine
communication with men were by oracles, and by casual and un-
usual sights and sounds, as thunder and lightning, a sudden
tempest, an eclipse, a flight of birds, — particularly of birds that
mount to a great height, as these were supposed to know the
secrets of the heavens, — the appearance or action of the sacri-
ficial victims, or any strange coincidence.

The art of interpreting these signs or omens was called the art
of divination. It is probable that this art was introduced into
Greece from Chaldsea by the way of Egypt and the coast coun-
tries of Asia Minor.

Oracles. — But though the gods often revealed their will and
intentions through signs and portents, still they granted a more
special communication of counsel through what were known as
oracles} These communications, it was believed, were made by
Zeus, and especially by Apollo, who was the god of prophecy, the
Revealer.

Not everywhere, but only in chosen places, did these gods
manifest their presence and communicate the divine will. These

^ We should perhaps add that prophets were not unknown among the
Greeks. These were persons who, like the Hebrew prophets, were believed
to have a supernatural insight into the future. Sometimes this gift was hered-
itary, and then a family or house came to be regarded as set apart from ordi-
nary men. Among the most noted of the Greek prophets were Tiresias, the
blind soothsayer of Thebes, and Calchas, the adviser of the Grecians at the
siege of Troy.

28 ORACLES.

favored spots were called oracles, as were also the responses there
received. There were twenty-two oraies of Apollo in different
parts of the Grecian world, but a much smaller number of those
of Zeus. These were usually situated in wild and desolate spots
— in dark forests or among gloomy mountains.

The most renowned of the oracles were that of the Pelasgian
Zeus at Dodona, in Epirus, and that of Apollo at Delphi, in
Phocis. At Dodona the priests listened in the dark forests for the
voice of Zeus in the rustling leaves of the sacred oak. At Delphi
there was a deep fissure in the ground, which emitted stupefying
vapors, that were thought to be the inspiring breath of Apollo.
Over the spot was erected a splendid temple, in honor of the
oracle. The revelation was generally received by the Pythia, or
priestess,' seated upon a tripod placed over the orifice. As she
became overpowered by the influence of the prophetic exhala-
tions, she uttered the message of the god. These mutterings of
the Pythia were taken down by attendant priests, interpreted, and
written in hexameter verse. Sometimes the will of Zeus was
communicated to the pious seeker by dreams and visions granted
to him while sleeping in the temple of the oracle.

The oracle of Delphi gained a celebrity wide as the world : it
was often consulted by the monarchs of Asia and the people of
Rome in time of extreme danger and perplexity. Among the
Greeks scarcely any undertaking was entered upon without the
will and sanction of the oracle being first sought.

Especially true was this in the founding of colonies. Apollo
was believed "to take delight in the foundation of new cities."
No colony could prosper that had not been established under the
superintendence of the Delphian god.^

1 " Apollo speaks through the mouth of feeble girls and women, as a sign
that it is no human wisdom and art which reveals the divine will." — CuRTius.

2 The priests of the sanctuary kept themselves perfectly informed respect-
ing the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, and thus were able intelli-
gently to divect these great undertakings. It was in its superintendence of
Greek colonization that, in the estimation of Curtius, the Delphian oracle
rendered its greatest and most permanent service to civilization.

RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. 29

Some of the responses of the oracle contained plain and whole-
some advice ; but very many of them, particularly those that
implied a knowledge of the future, were obscure and ingeniously
ambiguous, so that they might correspond with the event however
affairs should turn, and thus the credit of the oracle be unim-
paired. Thus, Croesus is told that, if he undertake his expedition
against Persia, he will destroy a great empire. He did, indeed ;
— but the empire was his own. Again, the Spartans, seeking to
know whether they will be successful in a contemplated war against
the Athenians, are told that they " will gain the victory, \{ they
will fight with all their might."

While it doubtless is true that the oracles owed their origin to
a misinterpretation — by an age entertaining childlike conceptions
of the divine government of the world — of certain psychical
phenomena, such as those upon which modern spiritualism is
based, still they in a great measure owed their perpetuation, as
has already been intimated, to deceit and fraud. The priestly
colleges that controlled the sanctuaries became corrupt, and sold
their influence to designing politicians, who by bribes secured such
responses as would further their ends.

The Delphian oracle was at the height of its fame before the
Persian War ; in that crisis it did not take a bold or patriotic
stand, and its reputation was sensibly impaired.

Ideas of the Future. — To the Greeks life was so bright and
joyous a thing that they looked upon death as a great calamity.
They therefore pictured life after death, except in the case of a
favored few, as being hopeless and aimless.' The Elysian Fields,
away in the land of sunset, were, indeed, filled with every delight ;
but these were the abode only of the great heroes and "benefactors
of the race. The great mass of mankind were doomed to Hades,

^ Homer makes the shade of the great Achilles in Hades to say : —

" I would be
A laborer on earth, and serve for hire
Some man of mean estate, who makes scant cheer.
Rather than reign o'er all who have gone down _

To death." — <9</. XI. 489-90 [Bryant's Trans.].

30 THE SACRED GAMES.

where the spirit existed as " a feeble, joyless phantom." While
we believe that the soul, freed from the body by the event of
death, becomes stronger and more active, the Greeks thought
that without the body it became but a feeble im.age of its former
self. So long as the body remained unburied, the shade wan-
dered restless in Hades; hence the sacredness of the rites of
sepulture.

The Sacred Games. — The celebrated games of the Greeks had
their origin in the belief of their Aryan ancestors that the shades
of the dead were gratified or appeased by such spectacles as de-
lighted them during their earthly life. During the Heroic Age
these festivals were simply sacrifices or games performed at the
tomb, or about the pyre of the dead. Gradually these grew into
religious festivals observed by an entire city or community, and
were celebrated near the oracle or shrine of the god in whose
honor they were instituted ; the idea now being that the gods were
present at the festival, and took delight in ^hej/arious contests and
exercises. It was this sentiment and belief of the Greeks which
lent such sanctity and importance to these festivals.

By the sixth century B.C. they had lost their local and assumed
a national character. Among these festivals, four acquired a
world-wide celebrity. These were the Olympian, celebrated in
honor of Zeus, at Olympia, in the Peloponnesus ; the Pythian, in
honor of Apollo, near his shrine and oracle at Delphi ; the
Nemean, in honor of Zeus, at Nemea ; and the Isthmian, held in
honor of Poseidon, on the narrow isthmus of Corinth.

The Olympian Games. — Of these four national festivals the
Olympian secured the greatest renown. In 776 B.C. Coroebus was
victor in the foot-race at Olympia, and as from that time the
names of the victors were carefully registered, that year came to
be used by the Greeks as the starting-point in their chronology.
The games were held every fourth year, and the intervals between
two successive festivals was known as an Olympiad. The date of
an occurrence was given by saying that it happened in the first,
second, third, or fourth year of such an Olympiad — the first,
second, or third, etc.

RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. 31

The contests consisted of foot-races, boxing, wTCStling, and
other athletic games. Later, chariot-racing was introduced, and
became the most popular of all the contests. The competitors
must be of the Hellenic race ; must have undergone ten months'
training in the gymnasium ; and must, moreover, be unblemishe^d
by any crime against the state or sin against the gods. Specta-
tors from all parts of the world crowded to the festival. The
deputies of the different states vied with one another in the rich-
ness and splendor of their chariots and equipments, and in the
magnificence of their retinues.

The victor was crowned with a garland of wild olives ; heralds
proclaimed his name abroad ; his native city received him as a
conqueror, sometimes through a breach made in the city walls ;
his statues, executed by eminent artists, were erected at Olympia
and in his own city ; sometimes even divine honor and worship
were accorded to him ; and poets and orators vied with the artist
in perpetuating the name and deeds of him who had reflected
undying honor upon his native state. ,

Influence of the Grecian Games. — For more than a thousand
years these national festivals exerted an immense influence upon
the social, religious, and literary life of Hellas. They enkindled
among the widely scattered Hellenic states and colonies a com-
mon literary taste and enthusiasm ; for into all the four great
festivals, excepting the Olympian, were introduced, sooner or later,
contests in poetry, oratory, and history. During the festivals,
poets and historians read their choicest productions, and artists
exhibited their masterpieces. The extraordinary honors accorded
to the victors stimulated the contestants to the utmost, and strung
to the highest tension every power of body and mind. To this
fact we owe some of the grandest productions of the Greek race.

They moreover j)romoted intercourse and trade; for the festi-
vals naturally became great centres of traffic and exchange during
the continuance of the games. They softened, too, the manners
of the people, turning their thoughts from martial exploits and
giving the states respite from war ; for during the month in which

32 THE AMPHICTYONIC COUNCIL.

the religious games were held it was sacrilegious to engage in
military expeditions.

They also promoted intercourse between the different Grecian
cities, or states, and kept alive common Hellenic feelings and sen-
timents. In all these ways, though they never drew the states
into a common political union, still they did impress a common
character upon their social, intellectual, and religious life.

The Amphictyonic Council. — Closely connected with the relig-
ious festivals were the so-called Amphictyonies, or "leagues of
neighbors." These were associations of a number of cities or
tribes for the celebration of religious rites at some shrine, or for
the protection of some particular temple.

Pre-eminent among all such unions was that known as the
Delphic Amphictyony, or simply The Amphictyony, This was a
league of twelve of the sub- tribes of Hellas, whose main object
was the protection of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Another
of its purposes was, by humane regulations, to mitigate the cruel-
, ties of war. This was one of the first steps taken in the practice
of international law. The following oath was taken by the
members of the league : " We will not destroy any Amphictyonic
town, nor cut it off from running water, in war or in peace ; if any
one shall do so, we will march against him and destroy his city.
If any one shall plunder the property of the god, or shall be cog-
nizant thereof, or shall take treacherous counsel against the things
in his temple at Delphi, we will punish him with foot and hand
and voice, and by every means in our power."

Another duty of the Amphictyonic tribes was to keep in repair
the roads leading to the Delphian sanctuary. These were carefully
levelled, and in rocky places smooth grooves of uniform gauge ^ were
cut for the wheels of the chariots and gayly decorated cars which
went up in a sort of festival procession to the games.

The so-called First Sacred War was a crusade of ten years car-

1 "Throughout the territories of the Amphictyons in Central Greece and the
Peloponnesus, these tracks had a uniform width of five feet and four inches."
— CURTIUS.

RELIGION OF THE GREEKS. 33

ried on by the Amphictyons against the cities of Crissa and Cirrha
for their robbery of the treasures of the Delphian temple. The
cities were finally taken, levelled to the ground, and the wrath of
the gods invoked upon any one who should dare to rebuild them.
This contest occurred in the first part of the sixth century B.C.
(600-590). The spoils of the war were devoted to the establish-
ment of musical contests in honor of the Delphian Apollo. Thus
originated the renowned Pythian festivals, to which allusion has
already been made (see p. 30).

Doctrine of the Divine Jealousy. — One notion which the
Greeks entertained concerning their gods colored so deeply all
their conceptions of life that we must not fail to make mention of
it here.

They were impressed, as all peoples and generations have been,
with the mutations of fortune and the vicissitudes of life. Their
observation and experience had taught them that long-continued
good fortune and unusual prosperity often issue at last in sudden
and overwhelming calamity. They attributed this to the jealousy
of the gods, who, they imagined, were envious of mortals that
through such prosperity seemed to have become too much like
one of themicives. Thus the Greeks believed the downfall of
Croesus, after his extraordinary course of uninterrupted prosperity,
to have been brought about by the envy of the celestials, and
they colored the story to bear out this version of the matter.

Later, this idea of the divine etivy was moralized into a con-
ception of the righteous indignation of the gods, aroused by the
insolence and presumptuous pride so inevitably engendered by
over-great prosperity (see p. 161).

The Suppliant. — Whoso hardened his heart against the appeal
of the suppliant, him the Furies pursued with undying ven-
geance. But only through certain formalities could one avail him-
self of the rights of a suppliant. Should one, upon the commission
of a crime, flee to a temple, he became a suppliant of the god to
whose altar he clung, and to harm him there was a most awful dese-
cration of the shrine. The gods punished with dreadful severity

34 THE SUPPLIANT.

such impiety, and an inexpiable curse rested upon the house of
the offender, while awful calamities were sure to fall upon the
city or community that tolerated the presence of the accursed.
Time and again the entire course of events in Greece was com-
pletely changed by the public feeling of aversion and anger
aroused against some powerful family on account of some act of
the nature of that mentioned, committed by one or more of its
members (see pp. 51, 82).

To sit or kneel at the hearth of an enemy was also a most sol-
emn form of supplication. An olive branch borne in the hand was
still another form of supplication, which rendered especially
sacred and inviolable the person of him who thus appealed for
clemency.

We must here add, in order to anticipate the perplexity that
might otherwise trouble the reader, that the harsh doctrine men-
tioned above of the inexpiable and hereditary character of certain
crimes, was finally, like the idea of the Divine Jealousy, softened
and moralized, and that it came to be believed that by certain
rites of purification full atonement might be made for personal or
ancestral guilt, and thus the workuigs of the original curse be
stayed.

GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 35

CHAPTER IV.

AGE OF CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES AND OF COLONIZATION:
GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS.

(776-500 B.C.;

I. General Features of the Period.

Introductory. — A hasty sketch, such as we propose to give in
this section, of the general features of the period upon which we
now enter, — the period embraced between the close of the
Legendary Age and the beginning of the Persian Wars, — will
serve as a sort of introduction to the history during this same time
of Sparta and Athens, the representative cities of Greece. On
the other hand, the story of the early growth of these cities, which
we shall give in the two following sections, will in turn illustrate
what we shall here have to say respecting Hellenic affairs in gen-
eral during this formative period of Greek history.

The Homeric Monarchies give Place to Oligarchies. — We
have seen that in the Heroic Age the preferred form of government
was a patriarchal monarchy. The Iliad says, " The rule of many is
not a good thing : let us have one ruler only, — one king, — him
to whom Zeus has given the sceptre and the tutelary sanctions." '

But by the dawn of the historic period, the patriarchal monar-
chies of the Achaean age had given place, in almost all the Grecian
cities, to oligarchies or aristocracies. The power of the "Zeus-
bom " kings had passed into the hands of the nobles of his coun-
cil. In Sparta, however, the monarchy was not actually abolished,
though the kings — there were two — were, as we shall learn,
robbed of so much of their power that they remained scarcely
more than shadow-sovereigns.

1 II. 203-206.

30 THE OLIGARCHIES GIVE WAY TO TYRANNIES,

The Oligarchies give Way to Tyrannies. — As the Homeric
monarchies were superseded by oUgarchies, so these in turn were
superseded by tyrannies.

The nobles into whose hands the ancient royal authority had
passed were often divided among themselves, and invariably
opposed by the common freemen, who, as they grew in intelli-
gence and wealth, naturally aspired to a place in the government.
The issue of long contentions was the overthrow almost everywhere
of oligarchical government and the establishment of the rule of a
single person.

Usually this person was one of the nobility, who held himself
out as the champion of the people, and who with their help
usurped- the government. One who had thus seized the govern-
ment was called a Tyrant {tyrannos) . By this term the Greeks
did not mean one who rules harshly, but simply one who holds the
supreme authority in the state illegally. Some of the Greek
Tyrants were mild and beneficent rulers, though too often they
were all that the name implies among us. Sparta was almost the
only important state that did not fall into the hands of a Tyrant.

The so-called Age of the Tyrants lasted from 650 to 500 b.c.
As. is usual with usurpers, the Greek Tyrants exerted themselves to
make their rule attractive by making it splendid. They instituted
religious festivals, undertook great public works, and often gave a
magnificent patronage to artists and poets. Hence the age of the
Tyrannies was an important one in the history of Hellenic art and
culture.

But the Tyrants sat upon very unstable thrones. The Greeks
always had an inextinguishable hatred of arbitrary rule ; and of
course the nobles who were excluded from the government were
continually plotting against the power of the usurper. Conse-
quently the Tyrannies were, as a rule, short-lived, rarely lasting
longer than three generations. They were usually violendy over-
thrown, and the old oligarchies re-established, or democracies set
up in their place. As a rule, the Dorian cities preferred oligar-
chical, and the Ionian cities democratical, government.

GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 37

Sparta, which, as has been noted, never fell into the hands of a
despot, was very active in aiding those cities that had been so
unfortunate as to have their governments usurped by tyrants, to
drive out the usurpers, and to re-establish their aristocratical
constitutions. Athens, as we shall see, became the champion of
democracy.

Among the most noted of the Tyrants were the Pisistratidae, at
Athens, of whom we shall speak hereafter ; Periander, at Corinth
(625-585 B.C.), who was a most cruel ruler, yet so generous a
patron of artists and literary men that he was thought worthy of a
place among the Seven Sages ; and Polycrates, Tyrant of Samos
(535-522 B.C.), who, with that island as a stronghold, and with a
fleet of a hundred war-galleys, built up a sort of maritime kingdom
in the ^gean, and for the space of more than a decade enjoyed
such astonishing and uninterrupted prosperity, that it was believed
his sudden downfall and death — he was allured to the Asian
shore by a Persian satrap, and crucified — were brought about by
the envy of the gods.^

The Lawgivers. — This period of political strife and constitu-
tional changes gave birth in the Greek cities to numerous states-
men of great political discernment and sagacity, like Moses among
the Hebrews, who drew up codes of laws and constitutions that
formed the basis of the aristocratical and democratical govern-
ments to which we have alluded.

Among the most noted of these lawgivers were Lycurgus, to
whom tradition assigns the framing of the Spartan constitution,
and Solon and Cleisthenes, who established the democratical

^ Herodotus tells how Amasis of Egypt, the friend and ally of the Tyrant,
becoming alarmed at his extraordinary course of good fortune, wrote him,
begging him to interrupt it and disarm the envy of the gods by sacrificing his
most valued possession. Polycrates, acting upon the advice, threw into the
sea a precious ring, which he highly prized; but soon afterwards the jewel
was found by his servants in a fish that a fisherman had brought to the
palace as a present for Polycrates. When Amasis heard of this, he at once
broke off his alliance with the Tyrant, feeling sure that he was fated to suffer
some terrible reverse of fortune. The event justified his worst fears.

38 THE FOUNDING OF COLONIES.

constitution of Athens. Of these great lawgivers we shall have
much to say in the following sections.

The Founding of Colonies. — This same age of political strife
and of tyranny also coincides with the era of greatest activity
in the founding of new colonies. Thousands, driven from their
homes, like the Puritans in the time of the Stuart tyranny in Eng-
land, fled over the seas, and, under the direction of the Delphian
Apollo, laid upon remote and widely s'bparated shores the basis of
"Dispersed Hellas." The overcrowding of population and the
Greek love of enterprise and adventure, as well as civil dissensions,
also contributed to swell the number of emigrants.^

During this colonizing era Southern Italy became so thickly set
with Greek cities as to become known as Magna Grcecia, " Great
Greece." Here were founded during the latter part of the eighth
century B.C. the important Dorian city of Tarentum ; the wealthy
and luxurious ^Eolian city of Sybaris (whence the term Sybarite,
meaning a voluptuary) ; the great Croton, — the destroyer of Syb-
aris, — distinguished for its schools of philosophy and its victors in
the Olympian games; and Rhegium, the mother of statesmen,
historians, poets, and artists.^

1 That Greek feeling of local patriotism of which we have already spoken
(see p. 8) lent a peculiar character to Greek colonization. The Hellenic
colonies, unlike those of modern times, were, as a rule, politically independent
of the mother city. Each colony formed a distinct, self-governing state. Its
relations to its mother city were simply those of filial piety, and of a common
worship. This was symbolized by the embers which the emigrants carried
with them from the hearth of the mother city, with which to kindle the altar
fires of the new home.

Besides these independent colonies, however, which were united to the
mother city by the ties of friendship and reverence alone, there was another
class of colonies known as kleruchies. The settlers in these did not lose their
rights of citizenship in the mother city, which retained full control of their
affairs. Such settlements, however, were more properly garrisons than colo-
nies, and were few in number, compared with the independent communities.

2 Kyme (Cumae'), famed throughout the Grecian and the Roman world on
account of its oracle and Sibyl, is said to have been founded as early as
1050 B.C.

GREECE

and the

GREEK COLONIES.

Ionian I I

Dorian J — I

Other Greek Saces I I

Phcenician I I

GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 39

Upon the island of Sicily was planted by the Dorian Corinth
the city of Syracuse (734 B.C.), which, before Rome had become
great, waged war on equal terms with Carthage. Here also were
established the Dorian Agrigentum, — the scene of the incredible
cruelties of the Tyrant Phalaris, — and a long list of large and
flourishing colonies.

In the Gulf of Lyons was established about 600 b.c. the impor-
tant Ionian city of Massalia (Marseilles), the radiating point of
long routes of travel and trade.

On the African coast was founded the great Dorian city of
Cyrene (630 B.C.), and probably about the same time was estab-
lished in the Nile delta the recently excavated city of Naucratis,
which was the centre of the Greek population there, and through
which the civilization of Egypt flowed into Greece.

The tide of emigration flowed not only to the west and south,
but to the north as well. The northern shores of the ^gean and
those of the Hellespont and the Propontis were fringed with colo-
nies. The Argonautic terrors of the Black Sea were forgotten or
unheeded, and even those remote shores received their emigrants.
Many of the settlements in that quarter were established by the
Ionian city of Miletus, which, swarming like a hive, became the
mother of more than eighty colonies.

Through this wonderful colonizing movement Greece came to
hold somewhat the same place in the ancient Mediterranean
world that England as a colonizer occupies in the world of to-
day. Many of these colonies not only reflected honor upon the
mother-land through the just renown of their citizens, but through
their singularly free, active, and progressive life, exerted upon her
n most healthful and stimulating influence. The earliest po'^ts.
?rtists, and philosophers of Hellas were natives of tne Asiatic 01
European colonial cities.

II. The Growth of Sparta.

Gradnal Rise of Sparta. — Sparta was one of the cities of the
Peloponnesus which owed their origin or importance co tfte

40

CLASSES IN THE SPARTAN STATE.

Dorian Invasion (see p. 17). It was situated in the deep valley
of the Eurotas, in Laconia, and took its name Sparta (sown land)
from the circumstance that it was built upon tillable ground,
whereas the heart and centre of most Greek cities consisted of a
lofty rock (the citadel, or acropolis). It was also called Lace-
dsemon, after an early legendary king.

At first, Sparta was overshadowed by the city of Argos, — since
the return of the Heraclidae, in Dorian hands, — but gradually she
rose to the place of pre-eminence among all the cities of the
peninsula. Her power was largely the outgrowth of her peculiar
political constitudon, one of the most remarkable ever framed by
any state. It is this constitution, with which Sparta presents her-
self to us in the light of the historic period, that we must now
examine.

Classes in the Spartan State. — In order to understand the
social and political institutions of the Spartans, we must first
notice the three classes — Spartans (Spartiatse), Perioeci, and
Helots — into which the population of Laconia was divided.

The Spartans proper were the descendants of the conquerors of
the country, and were Dorian in race and language. They com-
posed but a small fraction of the entire population. Their rela-
tions to the conquered people were those of an army of occupa-
tion. Sparta, their capital, was simply a vast camp, unprotected
by any walls until later and degenerate times. The martial valor
of its citizens was thought its only proper defence.

The Perioeci (dwellers around) who constituted the second class,
were the subjugated Achgeans. They were allowed to retain pos-
session of their lands, but were forced to pay tribute, and, in times
of war, to fight for the glory and interest of their Spartan masters.

The third and lowest class was composed of slaves, or serfs,
called Helots. The larger number of these were laborers upon
the estates of the Spartans. They were the property of the state,
and not of the individual Spartan lords, among whom they were
distributed by lot.

These Helots practically had no rights which their Spartan

GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 41

masters felt bound to respect. If one of their number displayed
unusual powers of body or mind, he was secretly assassinated, as
it was deemed unsafe to allow such qualities to be fostered in this
servile class. It is affirmed that when the Helots grew too nu-
merous for the safety of the state, their numbers were thinned by a
deliberate massacre of the surplus population.^

Origin of the Spartan Institutions. — The laws and customs
of the Spartans have excited more interest, perhaps, than any
similar institutions of the ancient world. A mystery and halo
were thrown about them by their being attributed to the creative
genius of a single lawgiver, Lycurgus.

But it is a proverb that constitutions grow, and are not made.
Circumstances were the real creators of those strange institutions
— the circumstances which surrounded a small band of conquerors
in the midst of a large and subject population. Nor were they
the creation of an hour — the fruit of a happy inspiration. All
the events of the early conquest, all the toils, dangers, and
hardships which the Dorian warriors endured in the subjugation
of the land, and all the prudence and watchfulness necessary to
the maintaining of themselves in the position of conquerors, helped
to determine the unusual and harsh character of the laws and
regulations of the Spartan state.

The work of Lycurgus, then, was not that of a new creation.

^ In his history of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides makes the follow-
ing statement : " Dreading the youth and number of their slaves, the Lacedae-
monians, who have ever put in practice many precautions to curb and awe
their Helots, made public proclamation, that so many of them as could claim
the merit of having done signal services to the Lacedaemonians in the present
war should enter their claims, and be rewarded with freedom. The view in
this was, to sound them, it being thought that such as had the greatness of
spirit to claim their freedom in requital of their merit, must be also the ripest
for rebellion. x\bout two thousand claimants were adjudged worthy of free-
dom, and accordingly were led about in solemn procession to the temple,
crowned with garlands, as men honored with their liberty. But, in no long
time after, they made away with them all; nor has the world been able to dis-
cover in what manner they were thus to a man destroyed."

42 THE LEGEND OF LYCURGUS.

Back of him lay a long period of growth and development. His
labor was that of a wise and far-seeing statesman, whose work it is
to "modify and shape already-existing habits and customs into
rule and law " ; to make additions and improvements ; to antici-
pate growing tastes and tendencies. The very fact that the legis-
lation of Lycurgus was adopted and became the system of a state,
shows that it must have been simply the outgrowth of customs
and regulations already familiar and consequently acceptable to
at least a large party among the Spartans.

• The Legend of Lycurgus. — Lycurgus, according to tradition,
lived and did his work about the ninth century B.C. Many of the
best years of his life were spent in exile. He is represented as
acquainting himself with the laws and institutions of different
lands, by converse with their priests and sages. He is said to
have studied with great zeal the laws of Minos, the legendary
lawgiver of the Cretans. Like the great legislator Moses, he
became learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Legend
tells, too, how he journeyed as far as India, and became a disciple
of the Brahmins.

The prime of life was almost passed when he returned to his
native Sparta. So great was his reputation for learning and wis-
dom that he soon became the leader of a strong party. After
much opposition, a system of laws and regulations drawn up by
him was adopted by the Spartan people. Then, binding his
countrymen by a solemn oath that they would carefully observe
his laws during his absence, he set out on a pilgrimage to Delphi.
In response to his inquiry, the oracle assured him that Sparta
would endure and prosper as long as the people obeyed the laws
he had given them. Lycurgus caused this answer to be carried
to his countrymen ; and then, that they might remain bound by
the oath they had taken, he resolved never to return. He went
into an unknown exile. Three lands claimed to hold his dust ;
and the Spartans in after years perpetuated his memory and their
own gratitude by temples and sacrifices in his honor.^

1 " The legend symbolizes the inviolability of the Constitution." — Ranke.

GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 43

The Kings, the Senate, and the Popular Assembly. — The so-
called Constitution of Lycurgus provided for two joint kings, a
Senate of Elders, and a Popular Assembly.

The two kings corresponded in some respects to the two Con-
suls in the later Roman republic. One served as a check upon
the other. This double sovereignty worked admirably ; for five
centuries there were no attempts on the part of the Spartan kings
to subvert the constitution. The power of the joint kings, it should
be added, was rather nominal than real (save in time of war) ;
so that while the Spartan government was monarchical in form,
it in reality was an aristocracy, the Spartans corresponding very
closely to the feudal lords of Mediaeval Europe.

The Senate {gerousid) consisted of twenty-eight elders. The
two co-ordinate kings were also members, thus raising the number
to thirty. This body existed long before the time of Lycurgus.
He probably simply modified, or added to, its powers and duties.
No one could become a member of this body until he had reached
the age of sixty. The mode of election was peculiar. The com-
mittee who were to decide between the candidates were confined
in a chamber near the public assembling-place, where, without
seeing what was going on, they might hear the clamor of the peo-
ple. Then the candidates were presented to the meeting, one
by one, and the partisans of each greeted their favorite with great
and prolonged applause. It was the duty of the committee to
decide which candidate had been received with the greatest
enthusiasm and clamor, and he was declared the people's choice.
The proceedings in our own political conventions are' not very
dissimilar to this usage of the Spartan assembly.

The powers of the Senate were at first almost unlimited, extend-
ing to matters of life and death. After a time there was established
the office of ephor. The ephors, who were five in number and
elected by the Popular Assembly, gradually absorbed the powers
and functions of the Senate, as well as the authority of the two
associate kings.

The Popular Assembly was composed of all the citizens of

44 REGULATIONS AS TO LANDS AND MONEY.

Sparta over thirty years of age. By this body laws were made,
and questions of peace and war decided ; but nothing could be
brought before it save such matters as the Senate had previously
decided might be entertained by it. It was by this assembly that
the senators were elected in the manner above described.

In striking contrast to what was the custom at Athens, all mat-
ters were decided without debate. The Spartans were fighters,
not talkers ; they hated discussion. As in the case of the elec-
tions, the decision of the assembly respecting a measure was gener-
ally made known by acclamation. Sometimes, however, very
important measures were decided by vote.

Regulations as to Lands and Money. — At the time of Lycur-
gus the lands of Laconia had become absorbed by the rich,
leaving the masses in poverty and distress. It is certain that the
lawgiver did much to remedy this ruinous state of affairs. Tradi-
tion says that all the lands were redistributed, an equal portion
being assigned to each of the nine thousand Spartan citizens, and a
smaller and less desirable portion to each of the thirty thousand
Perioeci, — but it is not probable that there was any such exact
equalization of property.

The Spartans were forbidden to engage in trade ; all their time
must be passed in the chase, or in gymnastic and martial exercise.
Iron was made the sole money of the state. This, according to
Plutarch, " was of great size and weight, and of small value, so that
the equivalent for ten minae (about % 140) required a great room
for its stowage, and a yoke of oxen to draw it." The object of
this, he tells us, was to prevent its being used for the purchase of
"foreign trumpery."^

^ The real truth about this iron money is simply this : The conservative,
non-trading Spartans retained longer than the other Grecian states the use
of a primitive medium of exchange. Gold and silver money was not intro-
duced into Sparta until about the close of the fifth century B.C., when the
great expansion of her interests rendered a change in her money-system abso-
lutely necessary. In referring the establishment of the early currency to
Lycurgus, the Spartans simply did in this case just what they did in regard to
their other usages.

GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 45

The Public Tables. — The most peculiar, perhaps, of the Lycur-
gean institutions were the pubUc meals {syssitid). In order to
correct the extravagance with which the tables of the rich were
often spread, Lycurgus ordered that all the Spartan citizens should
eat at public and common tables. Each person was required
to contribute to these a certain amount of flour, fruit, game, or
pieces from the sacrifices ; if any one failed to pay his contribu-
tion, he was degraded and disfranchised. Excepting the ephors,
none, not even the kings, were excused from sitting at the common
mess. One of the kings, returning from a long expedition, pre-
sumed to dine privately with his wife, but received therefor a
severe reproof.

A luxury-loving Athenian, once visiting Sparta and seeing the
coarse fare of the citizens, is reported to have declared that now
he understood the Spartan disregard of life in battle. " Any one,"
said he, " must naturally prefer death to life on such fare as this."

Education of the Youth. — Children were considered as be-
longing to the state. Every infant was brought before the Council
of Elders ; and if it did not seem likely to become a robust and
useful citizen, it was exposed in a mountain glen. At seven the
education and training of the youth were committed to the charge
of public officers, called boy-trainers. The aim of the entire
course, as to the boys, was to make a nation of soldiers who
should despise toil and danger and prefer death to military dis-
honor. The mind was cultivated only so far as might contribute
to the main object of the system. Reading and writing were
untaught, and the art of rhetoric was despised. Only martial
poems were recited. The Spartans had a profound contempt for
the subtleties and literary acquirements of the Athenians. Spartan
brevity was a proverb, whence our word laconic} implying a con-
cise and pithy mode of expression. Boys were taught to respond
in the fewest words possible. At the public tables they were not
permitted to speak until questioned : they sat " silent as statues."

^ From Laconia, the name of the district taken possession of by the Spar-
tans.

46 ESTIMATE OF THE SPARTAN INSTITUTIONS.

As Plutarch puts it, " Lycurgus was for having the money bulky,
heavy, and of little value ; and the language, on the contrary, very
pithy and short, and a great deal of sense compressed in a few
words."

But while the mind was neglected, the body was carefully
trained. In leaping, wrestling, and in hurling the spear the
Spartans acquired the most surprising nimbleness and dexterity.

But before all things else was the Spartan youth taught to bear
pain unflinchingly. He was inured to the cold of winter by being
forced to pass through that season with only the light dress of
summer. His bed was a bundle of river reeds. Sometimes he
was placed before the altar of Artemis, and scourged just for the
purpose of accustoming his body to pain. Frequently, it is said,
boys died under the lash, without betraying their suffering by look
or moan.

Another custom tended to the same end as the foregoing usage.
The boys were at times compelled to forage for their food. If
detected, they were severely punished for having been so unskilful
as not to get safely away with their booty. This custom, as well
as the fortitude of the Spartan youth, is familiar to all through the
story of the boy who, having stolen a young fox and concealed it
beneath his tunic, allowed the animal to tear out his vitals, with-
out betraying himself by the movement of a muscle.

The Cryptia, which has generally been represented as an organ-
ization of young Spartans who were allowed, as a means of render-
ing themselves ready and expert in war, to hunt and kill the
Helots, seems in reality to have been a sort of police institution,
designed to guard against uprisings of the serfs.

Estimate of the Spartan Institutions. — That the laws and
regulations of the Spartan constitution were admirably adapted to
the end in view, — the rearing of a nation of skilful and resolute
warriors, — the long military supremacy of Sparta among the states
of Greece abundantly attests. But when we consider the aim and
object of the Spartan institutions, we must pronounce them low
and unworthy. The true order of things was just reversed among

GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 47

the Lacedaemonians. Government exists for the individual : at
Sparta the individual hved for the state. The body is intended to
be the instrument of the mind : the Spartans reversed this, and
attended to the education of the mind only so far as its devel-
opment enhanced the effectiveness of the body as a weapon in
warfare.

Spartan history teaches how easy it is for a nation, like an indi-
vidual, to misdirect its energies — to subordinate the higher to the
lower. It illustrates, too, the fact that only those nations that
labor to develop that which is best and highest in man make help-
ful contributions to the progress of the world. Sparta, in signifi-
cant contrast to Athens, bequeathed nothing to posterity.

The Messenian Wars. — The most important event in Spartan
history between the age of Lycurgus and the commencement of
the Persian War was the long contest with Messenia, known as the
First and Second Messenian wars (about 750-650 B.C.).

Messenia was one of the districts of the Peloponnesus which,
like Laconia, had been taken possession of by the Dorians at the
time of the great invasion. It was the most fertile of all the
Dorian provinces. The Messenians were aided in the struggle
by Argos and other Peloponnesian states, which were jealous of
the rising power of Sparta.

It is told that the Spartans, in the second war, falling 'into de-
spair, sent to Delphi for advice. The oracle directed them to ask
Athens for a commander. The Athenians did not wish to aid the
I^cedsemonians, yet dared not oppose the oracle. So they sent
Tyrtaeus, a poet-schoolmaster, who they hoped and thought would
prove of but little service to Sparta. Whatever truth there may
be in this part of the story, it seems indisputable that, during the
Second Messenian War, Tyrtaeus, an Attic poet, reanimated the
drooping spirits of the Spartans by the energy of his martial strains.
Perhaps it would not be too much to say that Sparta owed her final
victory to the inspiring songs of this martial poet.

The conquered Messenians were reduced to serfdom, and their
condition was made as degrading and bitter as that of the Helots

48 POWER OF SPARTA.

of Laconia. Many, choosing exile, pushed out into the western
seas in search of new homes. Some of the fugitives founded
Rhegium, in Italy ; others, settUng in Sicily, gave name and im-
portance to the still existing city of Messena.

Power of Sparta. — After having secured possession of Mes-
senia, Sparta conquered the southern part of Argolis, and thus
gained control of a long strip of the eastern coast of the peninsula.
All the southern portion of the Peloponnesus was now subject to
her commands.

On the north, Sparta extended her power over many of the vil-
lages, or townships, of Arcadia ; but her advance in this direction
was at last checked by Tegea, a border town towards Laconia, and
one of the few important Arcadian cities. Yet notwithstanding
the Tegeans had successfully withstood the arms of Sparta, still
they now (about 560 b.c.) entered into an alliance with her, and
ever after remained her faithful friend and helper. This alliance
was one of the main sources of Spartan preponderance in Greece
during the next hundred years and more.

As the most powerful state in the Peloponnesus, Sparta now
assumed the leadership of the sacred league that protected the
shrine of Zeus at Olympia, and through the Pan-Hellenic games
there celebrated every four years (see p. 30), caused her fame
to be spread even beyond the limits of Hellas. Croesus, king of
Lydia, sought an alliance with her in his unfortunate war with Per-
sia, which just now was the rising power in Asia.

HI. The Growth of Athens.^

The Attic People. — The population of Attica in historic times
was essentially Ionian in race, but there were in it strains of other

1 This section in the present edition has been rewritten and, in so far
as space would allow, the fresh information given us by the recently discov-
ered work of Aristotle on the Athenian Constitution incorporated in the
text. For details see Kenyon's " Aristotle on the Constitution of Athens";
also Botsford's " The Development of the Athenian Constitution" {Cornell
Studies in Classical Philology),

GROIVTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 49

Hellenic and of non- Hellenic stocks. This mixed origin of the
population is believed to be one secret of the versatile yet well-
balanced character which distinguished the Attic people above all
other branches of the Hellenic family. It is not the absolutely
pure, but the mixed races, like the English people, that have made
the largest contributions to civilization.

The Site of Athens. — Four or five miles from the sea, a flat-
topped rock, about one thousand feet in length and half as many
in width, rises with abrupt cliffs, one hundred and fifty feet above
the level of the plains of Attica. The security afforded by this
eminence doubtless led to its selection as a stronghold by the early
Attic settlers. Here a few buildings, perched upon the summit of
the rock and surrounded by a palisade, constituted the beginning
of the capital whose fame has spread over all the world.

The Kings of Athens. — When, in the seventh century b.c,
the mists of antiquity clear away from the plain of Attica, Athens
with an "oligarchical government appears as the capital of the
entire district. It is evident that back of this period stretches a
long prehistoric development ; but of the incidents of that early
growth we are left in almost total ignorance. It is certain, how-
ever, that during the Heroic Age Athens was ruled by kings, like
all the other Grecian cities. The names of Theseus and Codrus
are the most noted of the regal line.

To Theseus, as we have seen (see p. 12), tradition ascribed
the work of uniting the different Attic villages, or cantons, twelve
in number, into a single city, on the seat of the ancient Cecropia
(see p. 7). This prehistoric union, however or by whomsoever
effected, laid the basis of the greatness of Athens.^

Respecting Codrus, the following legend is told : At one time
the Dorians from the Peloponnesus invaded Attica. Codrus hav-

1 "The consolidation of the Attic Demoi {^denies, or townships] into a single
state would answer to the gradual absorption of the several English kingdoms
under the sovereignty of the chiefs of Wessex. In the one case, as in the
other, the task was not accomplished in a day, nor without violent struggles."
— Cox, History of Greece.

50 THE ARCHONS.

ing learned that an oracle had assured them of success if they
spared the life of the Athenian king, disguised himself, and, with
a single companion, made an attack upon some Spartan soldiers,
who instantly slew him. Discovering that the king of Athens
had fallen by a Lacedaemonian sword, the Spartans despaired of
taking the city, and withdrew from the country.

The Archons. — Codrus was the last hereditary king of Athens.
His successor, elected by the nobles from the royal family, was
simply ruler for life. There were twelve life-kings, and then
(in 752 B.C.) the authority of the regal office was still further
diminished by limiting the rule of the king to ten years. Forty
years later the office was thrown open to all the nobles, and
soon afterwards (in 682 B.C.) the term of office was reduced
to one year. As the power of the king was diminished, his old-
time duties were assigned to magistrates chosen by the nobles
from among themselves. The outcome of these changes was
that a little after the opening of the seventh century w.e find a
board of nine persons, called Archons, of whom the king in a
subordinate position was one, standing at the head of the
Athenian state. The old Homeric monarchy had become an
oligarchy.

The Council of the Areopagus. — Besides the board of Ar-
chons there was in the Athenian state at this time a very im-
portant tribunal, called the Council of the Areopagus.^ This
council was composed exclusively of ex-Archons, and conse-
quently was a purely aristocratic body. Its members held office
for life. The duty of the council was to see that the laws were
duly observed, and to judge and punish transgressors. To this
court was committed particularly the care of morals and re-
ligion. It probably was in the presence of this venerable tri-
bunal that the apostle Paul stood when he made his eloquent de-
fence of Christianity. (See Acts xvii, 22-32.)

Thus, when the historic period opens, we find the govern-

1 So called from the name of the hill ("Apeios 7r(i7oj, " Hill of Ares")
which was the assembling place of the council.

GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. ~A

ment at Athens in the hands of the nobles. The common
people had no part in the management of public affairs. Many
of them lived as tenants in a state little removed from serfdom
upon the domains of the wealthy nobles. If one became un-
able to pay his debts, both he and his wife and children might
be seized by his creditor and sold as slaves. Thus because of
their wretched economic condition, as well as because of their
exclusion from the government, the commons were filled with
bitterness against the nobles and were ready for revolution.

The Rebellion of Cylon (probably 628 or 624 b.c.^). — Taking
advantage of the unrest in the state, Cylon, a rich and ambi-
tious noble, attempted to overthrow the government and make
himself supreme. He seized the citadel of the Acropolis, where
he was closely besieged by the Archons. Upon the rock stood
a temple of Athena. Finally, hard pressed, the companions of
Cylon — he himself had escaped through the lines of his enemies —
sought refuge within the shrine. The Archon Megacles, fearing
lest the death of the rebels by starvation within the sacred en-
closure should pollute the sanctuary, offered to spare their lives
on condition of surrender. Fearing to trust themselves among
their enemies without some protection, they fastened a string
to the statue of Athena, and holding fast to this, descended from
the citadel, into the streets of Athens. As they came in front of
the altars of the Eumenides, the line broke ; and Megacles, pro-
fessing to believe that this mischance indicated that the goddess
refused to shield them longer, caused them to be set upon and
massacred.

Calamities that now befell the state caused the people to be-
lieve that the crime of the nobles had stirred the anger of the
gods. Thus the commons were inflamed still more against
the government of the aristocracy. They demanded, ant
finally secured, the banishment of the Alcmgeonidae, the
family to which Megacles belonged. Even the bones of the

^ Before the discovery of Aristotle's Athenian Constitution this conspiracy
was by most historians placed after the Draconian legislation.

62 THE LAWS AND CONSTITUTION OF DRACO.

dead of the family were dug up, and cast beyond the frontiers
of the state.

The people further insisted upon a publication of the laws,
which should secure them against the arbitrary and unjust de-
cisions of the oligarchical magistrates, in whose hands, as we
have seen, was the entire administration of justice.

The Laws and Constitution of Draco (621 b.c). — To meet
these demands of the people* the nobles appointed one of their
own number, Draco to remodel the constitution and draw up a
code of laws.

The most important constitutional change made by Draco re-
lated to the election of magistrates. These had hitherto been
chosen by the Council of the Areopagus. This important func-
tion was now committed to the Ecclesia, or popular assembly, in
which body all persons had a place who were able to provide
themselves with a full military equipment. Moreover, the magis-
trates were henceforth to be chosen not exclusively from among
the nobles, but from among all persons possessing a certain
property qualification, the amount of property varying with the
importance and character of the office. Thus property instead
of birth was made the basis of political rights.

Besides making these reforms in the constitution, Draco drew
up a code of laws. Tradition says that the legislator assigned
to the least offence the penalty of death. This alleged severity
of the Draconian laws is what caused a later Athenian orator to
say that they were written, " not in ink, but in blood." The
laws doubtless were severe, though not as severe as the tradition
affirms. But there was one real defect in Draco's work. He
gave no relief to the poor who were the victims of the harsh
laws of debt.

The Reforms of Solon (594 b.c). — Shortly after the Draco-
nian reforms, a war broke out between Athens and Megara, re-
specting the island of Salamis, to which both cities laid claim.
The struggle finally ended in favor of Athens, but the burdens
the war had entailed upon the Athenians rendered still more uu-

GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 53

endurable the condition of the poorer classes, and made still
more urgent some measures of relief.

Once more, as in the time of Draco, the Athenians placed
their laws and constitution in the hands of a single man, to be
remodelled as he might deem best. Solon, a man held in high
esteem by all classes on account of distinguished services ren-
dered to the state, particularly in the recent war with Megara,
was selected to discharge this responsible duty.

Solon turned his attention first to relieving the misery of the
debtor class. He cancelled all debts of every kind, both public
and private. Moreover, that there might never again be seen in
Attica the spectacle of men dragged off in chains to be sold as
slaves in payment of their debts, Solon prohibited the practice
in the future of securing debts on the body of the debtor. No
Athenian was ever after this sold for debt.^

Such was the most important of the economic reforms of
Solon. His constitutional reforms were equally wise and benef-
icent. The Ecclesia, or popular assembly, was at this time com-
posed of all those persons who were able to provide themselves
with arms and armor ; that is to say, of all the members of the
three highest of the four property classes into which the people
were divided. The fourth and poorest class, the Thetes, were
excluded. Solon opened the Ecclesia to them, giving them the
right to vote, but not to hold office. Solon also made other
changes in the constitution, whereby the magistrates became re-
sponsible to the people, who henceforth not only elected them,
but judged them in case they did wrong.

The council of four hundred and one, called into existence by
the Draconian legislation, was reorganized by Solon. It was
henceforth to consist of four hundred members, each tribe con-
tributing one hundred.

1 Solon also reformed the monetary system. There was no connection
between this measure and the cancellation of debts, as was generally held
before the recent discovery of Aristotle's work on the Athenian Constitu-
tion.

54 EXPULSION OF THE TYRANTS FROM A THENS.

The Areopagus remained, under the Solonian constitution, the
guardian of the laws and the protector of the constitution, pun-
ishing without appeal lawbreakers and conspirators against the
state. Before all else was it to maintain a strict censorship of
public and private morals.

Besides the above reUef measures and constitutional reforms
of Solon, the legislator enacted various laws, all in the interest
of equity, harmony and moraUty.

The Tjrrant Pisistratus (560-527 b.c). Solon had the un-
speakable misfortune of living to see his institutions used to set up
a tyranny, by an ambitious kinsman, his nephew Pisistratus. This
man courted popular favor, and called himself the " friend of the
people." One day, having inflicted many wounds upon himself,
he drove his chariot hastily into the public square, and pretended
that he had been thus set upon by the nobles, because of his devo-
tion to the people's cause. The people, moved with sympathy and
indignation, voted him a guard of fifty men. Under cover of rais-
ing this company, Pisistratus gathered a much larger force, seized
the Acropolis, and made himself master of Athens. Though twice
expelled from the city, he as often returned, and finally succeeded
in getting a permanent hold of the government.

The rule of the usurper was mild, and under him Athens en-
joyed a period of great prosperity. He adorned the city with
temples and other splendid buildings, and constructed great aque-
ducts. Just beyond the city walls, he laid out the Lyceum, a sort
of public park, made inviting with groves, porches, and prome-
nades, which became in after years the favorite resort of the phi-
losophers and poets of Athens. He was a liberal patron of lit-
erature; and his library — the first gathered at Athens — was
generously thrown open to the public. He also caused the
Homeric poems to be collected and edited.

Pisistratus died 527 b.c, thirty- three years after his first seizure
of the citadel. Solon himself said of him that he had no vice
save ambition.

Expulsion of the Tyrants from Athens (510 b.c). —The two
sons of Pisistratus, Hippias and Hipparchus, succeeded to his power.

GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 55

At first they emulated the example of their father, and Athens
flourished under their parental rule. But at length an unfortunate
event gave an entirely different tone to the government. Hippar-
chus, having insulted a young noble, was assassinated. Hippias
escaped harm, but the event caused him to become suspicious and
severe. His rule now became a tyranny indeed, and was brought
to an end in the following way.

After his last return to Athens, Pisistratus had sent the "ac-
cursed " Alcmaeonidse into a second exile. During this period of
banishment an opportunity arose for them to efface the stain of
sacrilege which was still supposed to cling to them on account of
che old crime of Megacles (see page 51). The temple at Delphi
having been destroyed by fire, they contracted with the Amphic-
tyons to rebuild it. They not only completed the work in the
most honorable manner throughout, but even went so far beyond
the terms of their contract as to use beautiful Parian marble for
the front of the temple, when only common stone was required
by the specifications.

By this act — a pious and generous one, had it only been wholly
disinterested — the exiled family won to such a degree the favor
of the priests of the sacred college, that they were able to influ-
ence the utterances of the oracle. The invariable answer now of
the Pythia to Spartan inquirers at the shrine was, " Athens must
be set free."

Moved at last by the repeated injunctions of the oracle, the
Spartans resolved to drive Hippiao from Athens. Their first at-
tempt was unsuccessful ; but in a second, made in connection with
the Alcmaeonidae headed by Cleisthenes, they were so fortunate as
to capture the two children of Hippias, who, to secure their release,
agreed to leave the city (510 B.C.). He retired to Asia Minor,
and spent the rest of his hfe, as we shall learn hereafter, seeking
aid in different quarters to re-establish his tyranny in Athens. The
Athenians passed a decree of perpetual exile against him and all
his family.

The Reforms of Cleisthenes (509 b.c). — Straightway upon the
expulsion, of the Tyrant Hippias, there arose a great strife between

66 THE REFORMS OF CLEISTHENES.

the people, who of course wished to organize the government in
accord with the constitution of Solon, and the nobles, who desired
to re-establish the old aristocratical rule. Cleisthenes, aristocrat
though he was, espoused the cause of the popular party. Through
his influence several important changes in the constitution, which
rendered it still more democratical than under Solon, were now
effected.

In place of the four so-called Ionian tribes, into which all the
citizens of Athens up to this time had been divided, Cleisthenes
formed ten new tribes, which included all the free inhabitants of
Attica} Thus no matter in what province or hamlet of Attica a
man's home might be, if he were not a slave, he was a citizen of
Athens, and had the right to vote in the popular assembly, and to
enjoy all the other privileges of Athenian citizenship.

This, notwithstanding the retention of the old property classes,
made such a radical change in the constitution in the interest of
the masses, that Cleisthenes rather than Solon is regarded by many
as the real founder of the Athenian democracy.

The ten tribes, which were really geographical divisions of At-
tica, were each made up of a number of widely separated town-
ships, or denies, of which there were at first probably one hundred.
Each township contained a hamlet or village, possessed its own
magistrates, and managed its local affairs.

The Senate was remodelled in accordance with the new divisions
of the state. It had consisted of four hundred members, one hun-
dred from each of the ancient tribes. It was now made up of five
hundred members, fifty from each of the new tribes. Its duties
and powers, as well as those of the popular assembly, were greatly
increased, while those of the Archons and of the aristocratical
court of the Areopagus were correspondingly diminished. Many
cases hitherto tried by these bodies were hereafter decided by cit-
izen juries. Thus all the citizens of the state were accustomed

1 Aside from enlarging tfi^m by the admission of the new-made citizens,
Cleisthenes did not disturb the four property classes into which the citizens
of Athens were divided. The duties and privileges of these classes (eligi-
bility to the archonship, etc.) remained aa before. See p. 52,

GROWTH OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS. 57

not only to the management of political affairs, but were trained
in the exercise of judicial functions.

The command of the military forces was intrusted to ten gen-
erals {sfrategi), one for each of the new tribes. The supreme
command was held by each of the ten generals in turn, for one
day only at a time.

Ostracism. — But of all the innovations or institutions of
Cleisthenes, that known as ostracism was the most characteristic,
if not the most important. By means of this process any person
who had excited the suspicions or displeasure of the people could,
without trial, be banished from Athens for a period of ten years.
Six thousand votes cast against any person in a meeting of the
popular assembly was a decree of banishment. The name of the
person whose banishment was sought was written on a piece of
pottery or a shell (in Greek ostrakon), hence the term ostracism.

The original design of this institution was to prevent the recur-
rence of such a usurpation as that of the Pisistratidse. The priv-
ilege and power it gave the people were often abused, and many
of the ablest and best statesmen of Athens were sent into exile
through the influence of some demagogue who for the moment
had caught the popular ear.

No stigma or disgrace attached to the person ostracized. The
vote came to be employed, as a rule, simply to settle disputes
between rival leaders of political parties, and, when thus used,
was designed to put an end to dangerous contentions of powerful
factions in the state. Thus the vote merely expressed political
preference, the ostracized person being simply the defeated can-
didate for popular favor.

The institution was short-lived. *It was resorted to for the last
time during the Peloponnesian War (417 B.C.). The people then,
in a freak, ostracized a man whom all admitted to be the meanest
man in Athens. This was regarded as such a degradation of the
institution, as well as such an honor to tTlfe mean man, that never
thereafter did the Athenians degrade a good man, or honor a bad
one, by a resort to the measure.

Sparta opposes the Athenian Democracy. — The aristocratic

58 SPARTA OPPOSES THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY.

party at Athens was naturally bitterly opposed to all these demo-
cratic innovations. The Spartans, also, viewed with disquiet and
jealousy this rapid growth of the Athenian democracy, and their
King Cleomenes, instigated by Isagoras, the leader of the Athe-
nian nobles, made two unsuccessful invasions of Attica, for the
purpose of overthrowing the Athenian government. In the second
of these, the Spartans had as allies north of the Isthmus the
cities of Thebes and Chalcis, the latter a town upon the island of
Euboea.

After the withdrawal from Attica of the Peloponnesian forces, the
Athenians chastised the Thebans for giving aid to the Spartans \
and then crossing the channel to Euboea, captured Chalcis, took
away from the Chalcidians their lands, and distributed them by
lot among four thousand Attic farmers.

These colonists were not ordinary emigrants ; they did not cease
to be citizens of Athens. In a word, the part of the island thus
settled became simply an addition to Attic territory. This was
the first of that class of colonies which we have already described
under the name kleruchies (see p. 38, note). It pToved of vast
service to Athens.

Cleomenes now thought to secure his object through Hippias.
Inviting the deposed Tyrant over from Asia, he cnlled at Sparta
a convention of ail her Peloponnesian alUes, and tried to persuade
them to aid the Spartans in restoring Hippias to power in Athens.
But the eloquent portrayal by the Corinthian deputy Sosicles, of
the wrongs Corinth had endured at the hands of the Tyrant
Periander, and his scathing rebuke of Sparta's inconsistency in
overthrowing tyrannies elsewhere and then trying to set one up in
Athens, caused all the allies to refuse to lend any aid to the pro-
posed undertaking, so that Cleomenes was forced to abandon it.

Hippias now withdrew once more to Asia Minor, and we soon
find him at the court of King Darius, seeking aid of the Persians.
His solicitations, in connection with an affront which the Athe-
nians just now offered the king himself by aiding his revolted sub-
jects in Ionia, led directly up to the memorable struggle known as
the Graeco- Persian Wars.

THE GRjECO-PERSIAN WARS.

CHAPTER V.

THE GRiECO-PERSIAN WARS.

(500-479 B.C.)

In 500 B.C. the Ionian cities in Asia Minor (see pp. 5, 6, 19)
subject to the Persian authority revolted, Miletus was the fore-
most city concerned in the rebellion. Athens, and Eretria on
the island of Euboea, lent aid to their sister states. Sardis was
sacked and burned by the insurgents.

With the revolt crushed and punished with great severity, and
with his power re-established to the Hellespont, Darius determined
to chastise the European Greeks, and particularly the Athenians,
for their insolence in giving aid to his rebellious subjects. Herod-
otus tells us that he appointed a person whose sole duty it was
daily to stir up the purpose of the king with the words, "Master,
remember the Athenians."

A large land and naval armament was fitted out and placed
under the command of Mardonius, son-in-law of Darius. The
land forces suffered severe losses at the hands of the barbarians of
Thrace, and the fleet was wrecked by a violent storm off Mount
Athos, three hundred ships being lost (492 B.C.).

Undismayed by the disaster that had befallen the expedition of
Mardonius, Darius issued orders for the raising and equipping
of another and stronger armament Meanwhile he sent heralds
to the various Grecian states to demand earth and water, which
elements among the Persians were symbols of submission. The
weaker states gave the tokens required ; but the Athenians and
Spartans threw the envoys of the king into pits and wells, and bade

60 THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.

them help themselves to earth and water. By the beginning of
the year 490 B.C., another Persian army of 120,000 men had been
mustered for the second attempt upon Greece. This armament
was intrusted to the command of the experienced generals Datis
and Artaphernes; but was under the guidance of the traitor
Hippias. A fleet of six hundred ships bore the army from the
coasts of Asia Minor over the ^gean towards the Grecian shores.

After receiving the submission of the most important of the
Cyclades, and capturing and sacking the city of Eretria upon the
island of Euboea, the Persians landed at Marathon, barely two
days' journey from Athens. Here is a sheltered bay, which is
edged by a crescent-shaped plain, backed by the rugged ranges
of Parnes and Pentelicus. Upon this level ground the Persian
generals drew up their army, flushed and confident with their
recent successes.

The Battle of Marathon (490 b.c). — The Athenians were
nerved by the very magnitude of the danger to almost superhuman
energy. Slaves were transformed into soldiers by the promise of
liberty. A fleet runner, Phidippides by name, was despatched to
Sparta for aid. In just thirty-six hours he was in Sparta, which
is one hundred and fifty miles from Athens. But it so happened
that it lacked a few days of the full moon, during which interval
the Spartans, owing to an old superstition, were averse to setting
out upon a military expedition. They promised aid, but moved
only in time to reach Athens when all was over. The Plataeans,
firm and grateful friends of the Athenians, on account of some
former service, no sooner received the latter's appeal for help than
they responded to a man.

The Athenians and their faithful allies, numbering about ten-
thousand in all, under the command of Miltiades, were drawn up
in battle array just where the hills of Pentelicus sink down into the
plain of Marathon. The vast host of the Persians filled the level
ground in their front. The fate of Greece and the future of
Europe were in the keeping of Miltiades and his trusty warriors.
Without waiting for the attack of the Persians, the Greeks charged

THE €R^CO-PERSIAN WARS. 61

and swept like a tempest from the mountain over the plain, pushed
the Persians back towards the shore, and with great slaughter
drove them to their ships.

Miltiades at once despatched a courier to Athens with intelli-
gence of his victory. The messenger reached the city in a few
hours, but in so breathless a state that, as the people thronged
eagerly around him to hear the news he bore, he could merely
gasp, " Victory is ours," and fell dead.

But the danger was not yet past. The Persian fleet, instead of
returning to the coast of Asia, bore down upon Athens. Informed
by watchers on the hills of the movements of the enemy, Miltiades
immediately set out with his little army for the capital, which he
reached just at evening, the battle at Marathon having been won
in the forenoon of that same day. The next morning, when the
Persian generals would have made an attack upon the city, they
found themselves confronted by the same men who but yesterday
had beaten them back from the plains of Marathon. Shrinking
from another encounter with these citizen-soldiers of Athens, the
Persians spread their sails, and bore away towards the Ionian
shore.

Thus the cloud that had lowered so threateningly over Hellas
was for a time dissipated. The most imposing honors were
accorded to the heroes who had achieved the glorious victory, and
their names and deeds were transmitted to posterity, in song and
marble. The bodies of the one hundred and ninety-two Athenians
who had fallen, were buried on the field, and an enormous mound
of earth was raised over them. Ten marble columns surmounting
the tumulus bore the names of the heroes through more than six
centuries.

The gods were believed to have interposed in behalf of Greece ;
and suitable recognition of their favor was made in gifts and
memorials. A considerable part of the brazen arms and shields
gathered from the battle-field was melted into a colossal statue of
Athena, which was placed upon the Acropolis, as the guardian of
Athens. Tradition also says that, in after years, the grateful

62 JiESULTS OF THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.

Athenians ordered their great sculptor Phidias to cut the block
of marble which the confident Persians had brought with them to
set up as a monument of their anticipated victory, into a statue
of Nemesis, the goddess who punishes the proud and insolent.

Results of the Battle of Marathon. — The battle of Marathon
is reckoned as one of the "decisive battles of the world." It
marks an epoch, not only in the life of Greece, but in that of
Europe. Hellenic civilization was spared to mature its fruit, not
for itself alone, but for the world. The battle decided that no
longer the despotism of the East, with its repression of all indi-
vidual action, but the freedom of the West, with all its incentives
to personal effort, should control- the affairs and mould the ideas
and institutions of the future. It broke the spell of the Persian
name, and destroyed forever the prestige of the Persian arms. It
gave the Hellenic peoples that position of authority and pre-
eminence that had been so long enjoyed by the successive races
of the East. It especially revealed the Athenians to themselves.
The consciousness of resources and power became the inspiration
of their future acts. They performed great deeds thereafter be-
cause they believed themselves able to perform them.

Miltiades falls into Disgrace. — The distinguished services
Miltiades had rendered his country, made him the hero of the hour
at Athens. Taking advantage of the public feeling in his favor, he
persuaded the Athenians to put in his hands a fleet for an enter-
prise respecting the nature of which no one save himself was to
know anything whatever. Of course it was generally supposed
that he meditated an attack upon the Persians or their allies, and
with full faith in the judgment as well as in the integrity of their
favorite, the Athenians gave him the command he asked.

But Miltiades abused the confidence imposed in him. He led
the expedition against the island of Paros, simply to avenge some
private wrong. The undertaking was unsuccessful, and Miltiades,
severely wounded, returned to Athens, where he was brought to
trial for his conduct. His never-to-be-forgotten services at Mara-
thon pleaded eloquently for him, and he escaped being sentenced

THE GR^CO-PERSIAN WARS. 63

to death, but was subjected to a heavy fine. This he was unable
to pay, and in a short time he died of his wound. The unfortu-
nate affair left an ineffaceable blot upon a fame otherwise the most
resplendent in Grecian story.

Athens prepares for Persian Vengeance. — Many among the
Athenians were inchned to believe that the battle of Marathon

THEMISTOCLES.

had freed Athens forever from the danger of a Persian invasion.
But there was at least one among them v/ho was clear-sighted
enough to see that that battle was only the beginning of a great
struggle. This was Themistocles, a sagacious, versatile, and

64 XERXES' PREPARATIONS TO INVADE GREECE.

ambitious statesman, who labored to persuade the Athenians to
strengthen their navy, in order to be ready to meet the danger he
foresaw.

Themistocles was opposed in this policy by Aristides, called the
Just, a man of the most scrupulous integrity, who feared that
Athens would make a serious mistake if she converted her land
force into a naval armament. The contention grew so sharp
between them that the ostracism was called into use to decide
the matter. Six thousand votes were cast against Aristides, and
he was sent into exile.

It is related that while the vote that ostracized him was being
taken in the popular assembly, an illiterate peasant, who was a
stranger to Aristides, asked him to write the name of Aristides
upon his tablet. As he placed the name desired upon the shell,
the statesman asked the man what wrong Aristides had ever done
him. " None," responded the voter ; " I do not even know him ;
but I am tired of hearing him called the Just."

After the banishment of Aristides, Themistocles was free to
carry out his naval policy without any serious opposition, and
soon Athens had the largest fleet of any Greek city, with a splen-
did harbor at Piraeus.

Xerxes' Preparations to invade Greece. — No sooner had the
news of the disaster at Marathon been carried to Darius than he
began to make gigantic preparations to avenge this second defeat
and insult. It was in the midst of these plans for revenge that
death cut short his reign, and his son Xerxes came to the throne.

Urged on by his nobles, as well as by exiled Greeks at his court,
who sought to gratify ambition or enjoy revenge in the humiliation
and ruin of their native land, Xerxes, though at first disinclined
to enter into a contest with the Greeks, at length ordered the
preparations begun by his father to be pushed forward with the
utmost energy. For eight years all Asia resounded with the din
of preparation. Levies were made upon all the provinces that
acknowledged the authority of the Great King, from India to the

THE GRMCO-PERSIAN WARS. 65

Hellespont. Vast contingents of vessels were furnished by the
coast countries of the Mediterranean. Immense stores of provis-
ions, the harvests of many years, were gathered into great store-
houses along the intended line of march.

While all these preparations were going on in Asia itself, Phoe-
nician and Egyptian architects were employed in spanning the
Hellespont with a double bridge of boats, which was to unite the
two continents as with a royal highway. At the same time, the
isthmus at Mount Athos, in rounding which promontory the ad-
mirals of Mardonius had lost their fleet, was cut by a canal, traces
of which may be seen at this day. Three years were consumed in
these gigantic works. With them completed, or far advanced,
Xerxes set out from his capital to join the countless hosts that
from all quarters of the compass were gathering at Sardis, in Asia
Minor.

Disunion of the Greeks: Congress at Corinth (481 b.c). —
Startling rumors of the gigantic preparations that the Persian king
was making to crush them were constantly borne across the ^gean
to the ears of the Greeks in Europe. Finally came intelligence
that Xerxes was about to begin his march. Something must now
be done to meet the impending danger. Mainly through the
exertions of Themistocles, a council of the Greek cities was con-
vened at Corinth in the fall of 481 B.C.

But on account of feuds, jealousies, and party spirit, only a
small number of the states of Hellas could be brought to act in
concert. Argos would not join the proposed confederation through
hatred of Sparta ; Thebes, through jealousy of Athens. The Cre-
tans, to whom an embassy had been sent soliciting aid, refused all
assistance. The Corcyraeans promised to help, but they were not
sincere. Gelon, the Tyrant of Syracuse, offered to send over a
large armament, provided that he were given the chief command
of the allied forces. His aid on such terms was refused.

Thus, through different causes, many of the Greek cities held
aloof from the confederation, so that only about fifteen or sixteen
states were brought to unite their resources against the Barbarians ;

66 DISUNION OF THE GREEKS.

and even the strength of many of those cities that did enter into
the alliance was divided by party spirit. The friends of aristo-
cratical government were almost invariably friends of Persia, be-
cause a Persian victory in Greece proper meant what it had already
meant in Ionia, — a suppression of the democracies as incompati-
ble with the Persian form of government. Thus for the sake of
a party victory, the aristocrats were ready to betray their country
into the hands of the Barbarians. To make their conduct appear
less outrageous to the common Hellenic mind, some of these so-
called "Medizing^ Greeks" even tried to make out that the Per-
sians were the descendants of the Greek hero Perseus, and hence
pure Hellenes, submission to whom could not be regarded as
disgraceful.

Furthermore, the Delphian oracle, aristocratical in its sympa-
thies, and therefore influenced by the same considerations that had
weight with the oligarchical party, was lukewarm and wavering, if
not actually disloyal, and by its timid responses disheartened the
patriot party.

But under the inspiration of Themistocles the cities in conven-
tion at Corinth determined upon desperate resistance to the Bar-
barians. They resolved that all feuds existing between members
of the league should be extinguished, and solemnly bound them-
selves, after the struggle should be over, to make war together
upon any and every city that should give aid to the Persians, and
to dedicate one-tenth of the spoils to the shrine of the Delphian
Apollo.

Passing at last to the consideration of the question where they
should make their first stand against the invaders, it was at first
decided to concentrate a strong force in the Vale of Tempe, and
at that point to dispute the advance of the enemy ; but this being
found impracticable, it was resolved that the first attempt to resist
the Persian march should be made at the pass of Thermopylae.

The Spartans were given the chief command of both the land

1 The reference, of course, is to the Medes, by which term the Greeks
usually designated the Persians.

THE GRMCO-PERSIAN WARS. 67

and the naval forces. The Athenians might fairly have insisted
upon their right to the command of the allied fleet, but under the
inspiration of Themistocles, they patriotically waived their claim
for the sake of harmony.

The Hellespontine Bridges Broken. — As the vast army ol
Xerxes was about to move from Sardis, intelligence came that the
bridges across the Hellespont had been wrecked by a violent tem-
pest. It is said that Xerxes, in great ^vrath, ordered the architects
to be put to death, and the sea to be bound with fetters and
scourged. The scourgers faithfully performed their duty, at the
same time gratuitously cursing the traitorous and rebellious Helles-
pont with what Herodotus calls " non-Hellenic and blasphemous
terms."

Other architects spanned the channel with two stronger and
firmer bridges. Each roadway rested upon a row of from three
to four hundred vessels, all securely anchored like modem pon-
toons. The bridges were each about one mile in length, and fur-
nished with high parapets, that the horses and cattle might not be
rendered uneasy at sight of the water.

Passage of the Hellespont. — With the first indications of the
opening spring of 480 B.C., just ten years after the defeat at Mara-
thon, the vast Persian army was astir and concentrating from all
points upon the Hellespont. The passage of this strait, as pictured
to us in the inimitable narration of Herodotus, is one of the most
dramatic of all the spectacles afforded by history.

Before the passage commenced, the bridges were strewn ^vith
the sacred myrtle and perfumed with incense from golden censers,
while the sea was placated with libations poured by the king himself.
As the east reddened with the approach of the sun, prayers were
offered, and the moment the rays of Helios touched the bridges
the passage began. To avoid accidents and delays, the trains of
baggage wagons and the beasts of burden crossed by one cause-
way, leaving the other free for the march of the army. The first
of the host to cross were the sacred guard of the Great King, the
Ten Thousand Immortals, all crowned with garlands as in festival

68 THE REVIEW AND CENSUS.

procession. Preceding the king, moved slowly the gorgeous Char-
iot of the Sun, drawn by eight milk-white steeds. Herodotus
affirms that for seven days and seven nights the bridges groaned
beneath the living tide that Asia was pouring into Europe.

The Review and Census. — Upon an extended plain called
Doriscus, on the European shore, Xerxes drew up his vast army
for review and census. It was the largest armament that the world
had yet gathered for any enterprise. To Herodotus it seemed
that all Asia and Africa were there seeking the ruin of Greece.
Forty-six different nations marched beneath the ensign of the Per-
sian king. The costumes and equipments of the different contin-
gents were as varied as the countries whence they came. There
was every variety of dress, from the light cotton tunic of the native
of India to the leopard-skin in which the Ethiopian wrapped his
body. Some were clad in bronze armor ; others offered their
naked bodies to the blows of the enemy. The weapons borne
varied from the well-tempered blade of Damascus to the fire-
hardened stave of the Libyan. Some of the nomadic horsemen
were armed simply with the lasso.

The countless host could be numbered in no usual way. Ten
thousand men were crowded in as close a body as possible and
a low wall raised about them. Then these passed out of the
enclosure, which was again packed with soldiers, and when no
more could find room, it was calculated that ten thousand were
within. One hundred and seventy times was the enclosure thus
filled and emptied. According to this rude enumeration, the land
force of Xerxes amounted to 1,700,000 men. The naval force
brought the number up to the amazing total of 2,317,000. He-
rodotus adds to this about an equal number of slaves and attend-
ants, making the entire host number between five and six million
persons. It is believed that these figures are greatly exaggerated,
and that the actual number of the Persian army could not have
exceeded 900,000 men.

Provisioning the Persian Army. — From the plain of Doriscus
the Persian army moved on towards the Pass of Thermopylae,

THE GRyECO-PERSIAN WARS. 69

The cities along the route had been ordered to prepare repasts
for the army as it advanced, and to furnish special delicacies for
the royal table. The people, through policy or fear, made ex-
traordinary efforts to entertain in a becoming manner their self-
imposed guest, and to feed his soldiers. Herodotus affirms, and
there seems no reason to doubt his statement, that some of the
towns were driven to distraction, and others to the very verge of
ruin. The people, however, notwithstanding their perplexity and
distress, found occasion to thank the gods because Xerxes, accord-
ing to the Persian custom, required but one meal a day. " Had
the monarch required breakfast as well as dinner," says Herodo-
tus, " the citizens must have been reduced to the alternative either
of exile or of utter destitution."

Battle of Thermopylae (480 b.c.) . — Leading from Thessaly
into Central Greece is a narrow pass, pressed on one side by the
sea and on the other by rugged mountain ridges. At the foot of
the cliffs break forth several hot springs, whence the name of the
pass, Thermopylae, or "Hot Gates."

At this point, in accordance with the decision of the Corinthian
Congress, was offered the first resistance to the progress of the
Persian army. Leonidas, king of Sparta, with three hundred
Spartan soldiers and about six thousand allies from different states
of Greece, held the pass. As the Greeks were about to celebrate
the Olympian games, which their religious scruples would not
allow them to postpone, they left this handful of men unsup-
ported to hold in check the army of Xerxes until the festival days
were past.^

By a special interposition of the gods, as it seemed to the pious
Greeks, a furious tempest drove the Persian fleet upon the shore
and dashed to pieces over four hundred ships. This prevented
Xerxes from landing a force farther down the coast, in the rear

^ Grote likens the action of the Greeks at this time to that of the Jews, who,
when Jerusalem was being besieged by the Romans under Titus, rather than
violate their religious scruples, permitted the Roman works to be pushed for-
ward against their city during the Sabbath, without molestation.

70 THE BATTLE OF ARTEMISIUM.

of Leonidas ; for that movement was now hindered by a Grecian
fleet of sixty thousand men, which, encouraged by the Persian
losses, had advanced to Artemisium, at the extreme northern point
of the island of Euboea.

The Spartans could now be driven from their advantageous
position, only by an attack in front. Before assaulting them,
Xerxes summoned them to give up their arms. The answer of
Leonidas was, " Come and take them."

For two days the Persians tried to storm the pass. The Asi-
atics were driven to the attack by their officers armed with whips.
But every attempt to force the way was repulsed ; even the Ten
Thousand Immortals were hurled back from the Spartan front like
waves from a cliff.

But an act of treachery on the part of a native Greek rendered
unavailing all the bravery of the keepers of the pass. A by-way
leading over the mountains to the rear of the Spartans was
revealed to Xerxes. The startling intelligence was brought to
Leonidas that the Persians were descending the mountain path
in his rear. He saw instantly that all was lost. The allies were
permitted to seek safety in flight while opportunity remained. But
to him and his Spartan companions there could be no thought of
retreat. Death in the pass, the defence of which had been
intrusted to them, was all that Spartan honor and Spartan law now
left them. The next day, surrounded by the Persian host, they
fought with desperate valor ; but, being overwhelmed finally by
mere numbers, they were slain to the last man. With them also
perished seven hundred Thespians who had chosen death with
their companions. Over the bodies of the Spartan soldiers a
monument was afterwards erected with this inscription : " Stran-
ger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here in obedience to their
orders."

The Battle of Artemisium. — While Leonidas and his com-
panions were so gallantly striving to hold in check the land forces
of Xerxes at the Pass of Thermopylae, the Greek fleet at Arte-
misium, consisting of between two and three hundred ships, was

THE GR^CO-PERSIAN WARS. 71

endeavoring with equal bravery to prevent the immense fleet of
the Persians from entering the strait which runs between the island
of Euboea and the mainland. During the three days that the
struggle was going on at the pass, the Grecian ships were engaging
the Persian naval forces, with indecisive results ; but when on the
evening of the third day the Greeks received intelligence of the
loss of the pass, they withdrew from before the enemy, as there
was now nothing to be gained by holding the water passage any
longer. The whole armament came to anchor in the Gulf of
Salamis, near Athens, and awaited events.

The Burning of Athens. — Athens now lay open to the invad-
ers. The inhabitants of the Peloponnesus, thinking of their own
safety simply, commenced throwing up defences across the narrow
isthmus of Corinth, working day and night under the impulse of
an almost insane fear. Athens was thus left outside to care for
herself.

Counsels were divided. The Delphian oracle had obscurely
declared, " When everything else in the land of Cecrops shall be
taken, Zeus grants to Athena that the wooden walls alone shall
remain unconquered, to defend you and your children." The
oracle was believed to be, as was declared, " firm as adamant."
But there were various opinions as to what was meant by the
"wooden walls." Some thought the Pythian priestess directed
the Athenians to seek refuge in the forests on the mountains ;
others believed the oracle meant the wooden palisade which in
ancient times surrounded the Acropolis ; but Themistocles (who
it is thought may have himself prompted the oracle) contended
that the ships were plainly indicated.

The last interpretation was acted upon. All the soldiers of
Attica were crowded upon the vessels of the fleet at Salamis. The
aged men, with the women and children, were carried out of the
country to different places of safety. All the towns of Attica, with
the capital, were thus abandoned to the conquerors.

A few days afterwards the Persians entered upon the deserted
plain, which they rendered more desolate by ravaging the fields

72 THE NAVAL BATTLE OF SALAMIS.

and burning the empty towns. Athens shared the common fate,
and her splendid temples sank in flames. Sardis was avenged.
The joy in distant Susa was unbounded.

The Naval Battle of Salamis (480 b.c). — Just off the coast
of Attica, separated from the mainland by a narrow passage of
water, lies the island of Salamis. Here lay the Greek fleet. The
persuasive eloquence alone of Themistocles brought the Greeks
to the determination to face here the Persian squadrons. To
hasten on the Persian attack before dissensions should divide the
Greek forces, Themistocles resorted to the following stratagem.
He sent a messenger to Xerxes representing that he himself was
ready to espouse the Persian cause, and advised an immediate
attack upon the Athenian fleet, which he represented as being in
no condition to make any formidable resistance. Xerxes was
deceived. He ordered an immediate attack. From a lofty throne
upon the shore he himself overlooked the scene and watched the
result. The Persian fleet was broken to pieces and two hundred
of the ships destroyed.^

The blow was decisive. Xerxes lost faith in his undertaking
and in his allies. He feared that treachery might burn or break
the Hellespontine bridges, and thus endanger his own safety. He
instantly despatched a hundred ships to protect them ; and then,
leaving Mardonius with three hundred thousand men to retrieve
the disaster of Salamis, and effect, as he promised to do, the con-
quest of the rest of Greece, the monarch set out on his igno-
minious retreat to Asia.^

The Battles of Plataea and Mycale (479 b.c). — The next year
the Persian fleet and army thus left behind in Europe were entirely
destroyed, both on the same day — the army at Plataea, near

1 The entire Persian fleet numbered about seven hundred and fifty vessels;
the Grecian, about three hundred and eighty-five ships, mostly triremes.

2 On the very day of the battle of Salamis, Gelon of Syracuse gained a
great victory over the Carthaginians at the battle of Himera, in the north of
Sicily. So it was a memorable day for Hellas in the West as well as in the
East

THE GR^CO-PERSIAN WARS. 73

Thebes, by the combined Greek forces under the Spartan Pausa-
nias ; and the fleet, including the Asiatic land forces, at Mycale,
on the Ionian coast.

The battles of Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale were the successive
blows that shattered into fragments the most splendid armaments
ever commanded by Asiatic despot.

Memorials and Trophies of the War. — The glorious issue of
the war caused a general burst of joy and exultation throughout
all Greece. Poets and artists and orators all vied with one another
in commemorating the deeds of the heroes whose valor had warded
off the impending danger.

Nor did the pious Grecians think that the marvellous deliver-
ance had been effected without the intervention of the gods in
their behalf To the temple at Delphi was gratefully consecrated
a tenth of the immense spoils in gold and silver from the field of
Plataea ; and Avithin the sanctuary of Athena, upon the Acropolis
at Athens, were placed the broken cables of the Hellespontine
bridges, at once a proud trophy of victory, and a signal illustration
of the divine punishment that had befallen the audacious and im-
pious attempt to lay a yoke upon the sacred waters of the Helles-
pont.

74 LOYALTY OF ATHENS TO THE GRECIAN CAUSE.

CHAPTER VI.

PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY.

(479-431 B.C.)

Loyalty of Athens to the Grecian Cause. — Athens had braved
everything for the common cause of Hellas. The patriotism of
her citizens had never wavered. When Mardonius sought with
bribes to detach them from the Grecian league, they replied to
his messenger that " no conceivable temptation, either of money
or territory, should induce them to desert the ties of brotherhood,
common language, or religion."

Their lofty patriotism and unswerving loyalty to the general in-
terests of Greece — in striking contrast to the narrow selfishness
of the Spartans — were now rewarded. Athens was accorded the
place of honor and pre-eminence among the Grecian states. The
loss and suffering ntailed by the destruction of her dwellings and
temples were repaired and forgotten during the period of prosper-
ity upon which she now entered. Her maritime power, and her
reputation as a center of wealth and refinement and the home of
art and literature, were secured by the address and genius of a
succession of statesmen, artists, and writers such as perhaps no
other city in ancient or modem times ever produced. The im-
portant public events that fill the period intervening between the
battle of Plataea and the breaking out of the Peloponnesian War
(479-431 B.C.) will be found, as we now proceed to narrate them
in the very briefest way, to connect themselves especially with four
names of the widest renown — Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, and
Pericles.

Rebuilding the Walls of Athens. — After the Persians had been
expelled from Greece, the first care pf the Athenians was the

PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 75

rebuilding of their homes. Their next task was the restoration of
the city walls. The exalted hopes for the future which had been
raised by the almost incredible achievements and endurance of
the past few months, led the Athenians to draw a vast circuit of
seven miles about the Acropolis as the line of the new ramparts.

The rival states of the Peloponnesus watched the proceedings
of the Athenians with the most jealous interest. While they could
not but admire Athens, they feared her. Sparta sent an embassy
to dissuade the citizens from rebuilding the walls, hypocritically
assigning as the cause of her interest in the matter her solicitude
lest, in case of another Persian invasion, the city, if captured,
might become a shelter and defence to the enemy.

Themistocles as an Envoy. — The crafty Themistocles, the Ulys-
ses of Athens, and the most popular leader of his time, had a
talent for just such diplomacy as the case seemed to demand ; for
the Athenians were not strong enough to insist by force of arms
upon their right to manage their own affairs. Themistocles caused
the Spartan envoys to be sent home with the reply that Athens
would send commissioners to Sparta to consider the matter with
them there. Then, as one of the envoys, he himself set out for
Sparta, having previously arranged that the other members of the
embassy should not Lave Athens until the walls were sufficiently
advanced to defy assault. With astonishing unanimity and energy,
the entire population of Athens, rich and poor, men, women, and
children, set to work upon the walk. Material was torn from tem-
ples and tombs and built into the defences.

While this was going on at Athens, Themistocles was at Sparta,
vvith amazing address wondering with the Lacedaemonians what so
delayed his colleagues. From day to day the business upon which
he had come was postponed, to give time for the arrival of the
tardy envoys. At length rumors came to Sparta of the state of
affairs at Athens. Themistocles assured the people that these
were mere idle reports. Fresh rumors came. Then he advised
them to send messengers of their own to Athens to get the truth
of the matter. They did so. But Themistocles had already de-

76 I^AVAL POLICY OF THE ATHENIANS.

spatched a messenger to the Athenians informing them that the
Spartan envoys were on the way, and ordering their detention in
Athens.

By all these stratagems sufficient time was gained to raise the
walls to such a height that the Athenians could defy interference.
Then Themistocles boldly administered some " wholesome advice
to the Spartans. He told them, when they and their allies sent
ambassadors again to Athens, to deal with the Athenians as with
reasonable men, who could discern what belonged to their own
interest, and what to the general interest of Greece."

These circumstances attendant upon the refortifying of the Athe-
nian capital we have narrated at some length, because of the light
they throw upon the succeeding history of Athens. They exhibit
the tremendous energy with which the memory of the recent great
events of the Persian War inspired the Athenians. As Grote
observes, both arm and mind were strung to the very highest pitch.
It was this tension, calling forth the very best in every man, that
carried forward events at Athens with such almost preternatural
energy during the generation immediately following that great
struggle.

This contention respecting the walls of Athens also affords us a
glimpse of the rising jealousy between Sparta and Athens, which
at last, intensified by their different political tendencies, issued in
that long and calamitous struggle between these two rival states
and their allies, known as the Peloponnesian War.

Naval Policy of the Athenians. — Eminent as was the service
which Themistocles had rendered his native city in the conduct
of the Spartan negotiations, he now conferred a still greater benefit
by the exercise of his prudence and genius in the shaping of the
naval policy of the ambitious Athenians.

This far-sighted statesman saw clearly that Athens' supremacy
among the Grecian states must be secured and maintained by her
mastery of the sea. He had unbounded visions of the maritime
power and glory that might come to her through her fleet, those
" wooden walls " to which at this moment she owed her very exist-

PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 77

ence ; and he succeeded in inspiring his countrymen vrith his
own enthusiasm and sanguine hopes.

In the prosecution of his views, Themistocles persuaded the
Athenians to enlarge the harbor of Piraeus, the most spacious of
the three ports of Athens, and to surround the place with immense
walls, far exceeding, both in compass and strength, those of the
capital. He also led his countrymen to the resolution of adding
each year twenty well-equipped triremes to their navy.

This policy, initiated by Themistocles, was, as we shall see, zeal-
ously pursued by the statesmen that after him successively assumed
the lead in Athenian affairs.

Character of Themistocles. — Themistocles well deserved the
honor of being called, as he was, the founder of the New Athens.
But although a great and far-seeing statesman, to whose command-
ing ability both in war and in peace Athens owed almost everything,
still those imperfections of character which we cannot have failed
to notice, at last brought him into disgrace. He used unscru-
pulously the power and position which his abilities and services
secured him. He accepted bribes and sold his influence, thereby
acquiring an enormous property. Finally he was ostracized and
went into exile (471 B.C.). After long wanderings, he became a
resident at the court of the Persian king.

Tradition affirms that Artaxerxes, in accordance with Persian
usage, provided for the courtier exile by assigning to three cities
in Asia Minor the care of providing for his table : one furnished
bread, a second meat, and a third wines. It is told that one day,
as he sat down to his richly loaded board, he exclaimed, " How
much we should have lost, my children, if we had not been
ruined ! " He died about 449 b.c.

Aristides the Just. — The most illustrious contemporary and
rival of Themistocles was Aristides, to whom reference has already
been made (see p. 64). Less great in mind than Themistocles,
he was immeasurably his superior in character. Before the time
of which we are treating, he had already rendered many and emi-
nent services to his native state. He was one of the ten Athenian

78 THE CONFEDERACY OF DELOS.

generals that led the Grecian forces at Marathon. Not long after
that battle, his rival, Themistocles, as we have narrated, secured
against him a decree of ostracism.

With a spirit just the opposite of that evinced by the Roman
Camillus, who, when banished by his countrymen, invoked the
gods to send such calamities upon them that they would speedily
pray for his return, the patriot Aristides went into exile praying
the gods that nothing might befall his native city which should
cause those that had procured his banishment to mourn his
absence. Nevertheless, such an event soon did occur. Only six
years had passed when the threatening danger of the invasion by
Xerxes led to his recall by the Athenians, to aid Themistocles in
the defence of the state. He fought at Salamis and Plataea, and,
after the retreat of the Persians, became at Athens the rival of
Themistocles in popular favor and esteem. It was the universal
confidence inspired by his uprightness of character that enabled
him to secure for his native city that supremacy m the foreign
affairs of Hellas which had been hitherto accorded to Sparta
alone. How this came about will appear in the following para-
graphs.

The Confederacy of Delos (477 b.c). — In order that they
might be able to carry on war more effectively against the Per-
sians,— who for a long time after the disastrous expedition of
Xerxes never ceased, by intrigue and open force, to vex the Gre-
cian communities, — the Ionian states of Asia Minor, the islands of
the ^gean, and some of the states in Greece proper, mostly north
of the Isthmus, shortly after the battle of Plataea, formed them-
selves into wha. is known as the Confederacy of Delos. Sparta,
on account of her military reputation, had hitherto been accorded
the place of pre-eminence and authority in all such alliances of the
Hellenic cities. She had come, indeed, to regard herself as the
natural guardian and leader of Greece. But at this time the un-
bearable arrogance of the Spartan general Pausanias,^ who presumed

1 Pausanias was not only arrogant, but treacherous. It came to light after-
ward that he was at that moment engaged in treasonable negotiations with

PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 7d

upon the great reputation he had gained at the battle of Plataea,
led the states which had entered into the alliance to look to
Athens to assume the position of leadership in the new confed-
eracy.

The lofty character of Aristides, who was now the most promi-
nent Athenian leader, and his great reputation for fairness and in-
corruptible integrity, also contributed to the same result. He was
chosen the first president of the league (477 B.C.), and the
sacred island of Delos was made the repository of the common
funds. What proportion of the ships and money needed for car-
rying out the purposes of the union should be contributed by the
different states, was left entirely to the decision of Aristides, such
was the confidence all had in his equity ; and so long as he had
control of the matter, none of the members of the alliance ever
had cause of complaint.

Thus did Sparta lose, and Athens gain, the place of precedence
among the Ionian states. The Dorian states of the Peloponnesus,
in the main, still looked to Sparta as their leader and adviser. All
Greece was thus divided into two great leagues, under the rival
leadership of Sparta and Athens.

The Athenians convert the Delian League into an Empire. —
The Confederacy of Delos laid the basis of the imperial power of
Athens. The Athenians misused their authority as leaders of the
league, and gradually, during the interval between the formation
of the union and the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, reduced
their free and independent confederates to the condition of tribu-
taries.

Xerxes, and was teady, for a suitAle reward, to surrender all Greece into the
hands of the Persians. The well-known letter in which- he is made to seek
as the price of his treachery the hand of the daughter of Xerxes is, it is true,
by some pronounced a forgery; but then there is no doubt of his treasonable
intentions. His fate befitted his crime. To avoid arrest by the ephors, he
fled for refuge to the sanctuary of Athena at Sparta. The ephors, not daring
to seize him there, caused the roof of the temple to be removed, and walling
up the entrance, left the traitor to die of starvation.

80 GROWTH OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE.

Athens transformed the league into an empire in the following
manner. The contributions assessed by Aristides upon the differ-
ent members of the confederation, consisted of ships and their
crews for the larger states, and of money payments for the
smaller ones. From the first, Athens attended to this assessment
matter, and saw to it that each member of the league made its
proper contribution.

After a while, some of the cities preferring to make a money
payment in lieu of ships, Athens accepted the commutation, and
then building the ships herself, added them to her own navy.
Thus the confederates disarmed themselves and armed their
master.

Very soon the restraints which Athens imposed upon her allies
became irksome, and they began to refuse, one after another, to
pay the assessment in any form. Naxos, one of the Cyclades,
was the first island to secede, as it were, from the league (466
B.C.) . But Athens had no idea of admitting any such doctrine of
state rights, and with her powerful navy forced the Naxians to
remain within the union, and to pay an increased tribute.

What happened in the case of Naxos happened in the case of
almost all the other members of the confederation. By the year
449 B.C. only three of the island members of the league still
retained their independence.

Even before this date (probably about 457 B.C.) the Athenians
had transferred the common treasury from Delos to Athens, and
diverting the tribute from its original purpose, were beginning to
spend it, not in the prosecution of war against the Barbarians, but
in the execution of home enterprises, as though the treasure were
their, own revenue. •

Thus what had been simply a voluntary confederation of sov-
ereign and independent cities, was converted into what was prac-
tically an absolute monarchy, with the Attic democracy as the
imperial master.

What made this servitude of the former allies of Athens all the
more galling was the fact that they themselves had been com-

PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 81

pelled to forge the very chains which fettered them ; for it was
their money that had built and was maintaining the fleet by which
they were kept in subjection and forced to do whatever might be
the will of the Athenians.

The Leadership of Cimon. — One of the ablest and most dis-
tinguished of the generals who commanded the forces of the
Athenians during this same period when they were enslaving their
confederates, was Cimon, the son of Miltiades. He was one of
those whose spirits had been fired by the exciting events attendant
upon the Persian invasion. He had called attention to himself
and acquired a certain reputation, at the titne of the abandon-
ment of Athens, by being the first to hang up his bridle in the
sanctuary of the Acropolis, thus expressing his resolution to place
all his confidence in the fleet, as Themistocles advised.

After the expulsion of the Persians from Greece, he became one
of the most successful of the Grecian generals to whom was
intrusted the command of the armaments designed to wrest from
the hands of the enemy the islands of the ^gean and the Hellenic
cities of the Asiatic coast.

The rich spoils of his many victories over the Persians, the
most important of which was that at the mouth of the Eurymedon,
in Pamphylia (465 B.C.), enabled him to fill the treasury of
Athens, and also to build up an ample fortune for himself. His
private means he dispensed with a lavish hand in benefactions to
the poor, in the erection of magnificent public buildings, and in
the beautifying of the public walks and parks of Athens. The
Academy, the favorite resort of the Athenians, owed much of its
beauty to his munificence.

One of the most interesting ceremonies in which he took a
leading part was the removal of what was declared to be the bones
of the national hero Theseus from the island of Scyros, where the
exiled king is fabled to have died, to a place of entombment at
Athens. Over the sacred relics was erected a magnificent temple,
which some archaeologists believe to be identical with the remark-
ably well-preserved building near the Areopagus, known as the
Theseum.

g2 CIMON'S LOSS OF FAVOR.

Revolt of the Helots ; Cimon's Loss of Favor. — The popularity
of Cimon at last declined, and he suffered ostracism, as had
Aristides and Themistocles before him.

Cimon's loss of public favor came about in this manner. In
the year 464 B.C., a terrible earthquake destroyed a large portion
of Sparta, and buried a vast number of the inhabitants beneath
the ruins of their city. In the panic of the appalhng disaster the
Spartans were led to believe that the evil had befallen them as a
punishment for their recent violation of the Temple of Poseidon,
from which some Helots who had fled to the sanctuary for refuge
had been torn. The Helots, on their part, were quick to interpret
the event as an intervention of the gods in their behalf, and as an
unmistakable signal for their uprising. Everywhere they flew to
arms, and, being joined by some of the Perioeci, furiously attacked
their masters. The Spartans, after maintaining the bitter struggle
for several years, finding themselves unable to reduce their former
slaves to submission, were forced to ask aid of the other Grecian
states.

The great Athenian statesman Pericles implored his countrymen
not to lend themselves to the building up of the power of their
rival. But the aristocratic Cimon, who had always entertained
the most friendly feelings for the Spartans, exhorted the Athenians
to put aside all sentiments of enmity or jealousy, and to extend
succor to their kinsmen in this desperate posture of their affairs.
" Let not Greece," said he, " be lamed, and thus Athens herself
be deprived of her yokefellow." The great services Cimon had
rendered the state entitled him to be heard. The assembly voted
as he advised, and so the Athenian forces fought for some time
side by side with the Lacedsemonians.

But the Spartans were distrustful of the sincerity of their allies,
and this feeling gradually grew into positive fear lest the Athenians
should take advantage of their position in the country and pass
over to the side of the Helots. Acting under this apprehension,
which was probably entirely groundless, they dismissed the Athe-
nian forces. The discourtesy of the act aroused the most bitter

PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 83

resentment at Athens. The party of Pericles, which had always
opposed the resolution of aiding their rivals as impolitic and
weakly sentimental, took advantage of the exasperated feelings of
the people to effect some important changes in the constitution in
favor of the people, which made it almost purely democratical
in character,^ and to secure the exercise of the ostracism against
Cimon as the leader of the aristocratical party and the friend of
Sparta (459 B.C.).

The Age of Pericles (459-431 B.C.).

General Features of the Age. — Under the inspiration of Per-
icles, the Athenian state now entered upon the most briUiant period
of its history. The epoch embraces less than the lifetime of a
single generation, yet its influence upon the civilization of the
world can hardly be overrated. During this short period Athens
gave birth to more great men — poets, artists, statesmen, and
philosophers — than all the world besides has produced in any
period of equal length.

Among all the great men of this age, Pericles stood pre-eminent.
Such was the impression left by his commanding statesmanship,
his persuasive eloquence, and his almost universal genius, upon the
period in which he lived, that it is called after him the Periclean
Age.^ Yet though Pericles' power at Athens was almost absolute,

1 These reforms were as follows : The court of the Areopagus, the strong-
hold of the aristocracy, was stripped of most of its censorial powers, which,
with its judicial functions, were conferred upon courts (called dicasieries) each
composed of five hundred citizens. This change transferred the most impor-
tant functions of the state from an aristocratical body to the people at large.
The senate of five hundred was also deprived of the greater part of its judicial
powers. Ephialtes, the friend and supporter of Pericles, further caused the
tablets of Solon's laws, which had been kept upon the Acropolis, to be brought
down into the agora, as a symbol of the fact that the preservation and main-
tenance of the constitution was now intrusted to the people.

2 This phrase is often loosely applied to the entire period of Athenian
supremacy.

84 PERICLES FOS TERS THE NA VAL PO WER OF A THENS.

Still this authority was simply that which talent and character
justly confer. He ruled, as Plutarch says, by the art of persua-
sion.^

During the Periclean period the Athenian democracy was
supreme. The democratic consti-
tution, the basis of which had been
laid by Solon and broadened by
Cleisthenes, was completed by the
reforms to which we have already
referred (see p. 83, note). Every
matter that concerned the empire
was discussed and decided by the
popular assembly. Never before
had any people enjoyed such per-
fect political liberty as did the citi-
zens of Athens at this time, and
never before were any people,
through so intimate a knowledge
of public affairs, so well able to

direct the policies of state. Every citizen, it is affirmed, was
qualified to hold civil office.

Pericles fosters the Naval Power of Athens. — Cimon's pol-
icy had been to keep the Grecian cities united in order that they
might offer effectual resistance to the Persian power. The aim of
his rival Pericles was to maintain Athens as the leading state in
Hellas, and to oppose the pretensions of Sparta. Accordingly he
encouraged the Athenians to strengthen their naval armament and
to perfect themselves in naval discipline, for with Themistocles he
was convinced that Athens' supremacy must depend chiefly upon
her fleet.

As a part of his maritime policy, Pericles persuaded the Athe-
nians to build what were known as the Long Walls ^ (about 45 7-

^The only offices he held were those of strategus (see p. 56), Superintendent
of Public Works, and Superintendent of the Finances.
2 The Long Walls were each between four and five miles in length, and

PERICLES,

PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY.

85

455 B.C.), which united Athens to the ports of Piraeus and Pha-
lerum. Later (445 B.C.), as a double security, a third wall was
built parallel to the one running to the former harbor. By means
of these great ramparts Athens and her ports, with the intervening
land, were converted into a vast fortified district, capable in time

MtLyp^beftus

ATHENS AND THE LONG WALLS.

of war of holding the entire population of Attica. With her com-
munication with the sea thus secured, and with a powerful navy at
her command, Athens could bid defiance to her foes on sea and
land.

One of the most important conquests of the Athenians during
Pericles' leadership, in its bearing upon their maritime supremacy,
was the subjugation of the island of ^gina, which lies in front of

sixty feet high. They were defended by numerous towers, which, when Athens
became crowded, were used as shops and private dwellings. The walls were
employed as highways, the top being wide enough to allow two chariots to
pass conveniently. The foundation of the northern wall now forms in part
the road-bed of the railroad running from Piraeus to Athens.

86 THE THIRTY YEARS' TRUCE.

the harbor of Piraeus. This small but powerful state, which had
for a long time been a formidable rival of Athens by sea, was
now compelled to surrender its war galleys, and to pay tribute
(456 B.C.).

Events leading up to the Thirty Years' Truce. — At the

same time that Pericles was making Athens' supremacy by sea
more secure, he was endeavoring to build up for her a land empire
in Central Greece. As her influence in this quarter increased,
Sparta became more and more jealous, and strove to counteract it
by enhancing the power of Thebes, and by lending support to the
aristocratic party in the various cities of Boeotia.

The contest between the two rivals was long and bitter. At first
the Athenians were worsted, but at length the tide turned in their
favor. All the cities of Boeotia, Phocis, and Locris fell under the
power of Athens, and it seemed as though Pericles' dream of a
land empire as well as of a naval dominion was about to be real-
ized.

But fortune once more inclined to the side of the aristocratical
party. The Athenian army experienced an overwhelming defeat
(at Coronea, 447 B.C.), and Pericles was fain to seek peace with
Sparta, The negotiations ended in the well-known Peace of Peri-
cles, or the Thirty Years' Truce (445 B.C.). By its terms each of
the rival cities was left at the head of the confederation it had
formed, but neither was to interfere with the subjects or allies
of the other, while those cities of Hellas which were not yet mem-
bers of either league were to be left free to join either according
to choice.

The real meaning of the Truce was that Athens gave up her
ambition to establish a land empire, and was henceforth to be con-
tent with supremacy on the seas. It meant further that Greece
was to remain a house divided against itself; that democratic
Athens must share with aristocratic Sparta the hegemony, or lead-
ership, of the Hellenic cities.

Pericles adorns Athens with Public Buildings. — Notwith-
standing Pericles' failure to build up for Athens a land dominion,

PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. 87

Still he had contributed largely to give her a place of proud pre-
eminence in maritime Hellas. Athens having achieved such a
position as slie now held, it was the idea of Pericles that the Athe-
nians should so adorn their city that it should be a fitting symbol
of the power and glory of their empire.

Nor was it difficult for him to persuade his art-loving country-
men to embellish their city with those masterpieces of genius that
in their ruins still excite the admiration of the world.

Upon the commanding site of the Acropolis was erected the
unrivalled Parthenon.^ Here also, as a sort of gateway to the
sacred enclosure of the citadel, were erected the Propylaea, which
have served as a model for all similar structures since the age
of Pericles. Various other edifices, rich with sculptures, were
erected in different parts of Athens, until the whole city took on
a surprisingly brilliant and magnificent appearance. The whole
world looked up to the Attic city with the same surprised wonder
with which a century before it had regarded the city of Babylon
as adorned by the power and wealth of the great Nebuchadnezzar.

The Athenians secured the vast sums of money needed for the
prosecution of their great architectural works, out of the treasury
of the Delian confederacy. (It will be recalled that the Athenians
had transferred the common treasury from Delos to their own city.)
The allies naturally declaimed bitterly against this proceeding,
complaining that Athens, with their money, was " gilding itself as
a proud and vain woman decks herself out with jewels." But
Pericles' answer to them was, that the money was contributed to
the end that the cities of the league should be protected from the
Persians, and that so long as the Athenians kept the enemy at a
distance they had a right to use the money as they pleased.

The Citizens are taken into the Pay of the State. — It was a
fixed idea of Pericles that in a democracy there should be not only
an equal distribution of political rights among all classes, but also
an equalization of the means and opportunities of exercising these

* See p. 138.

88 THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE.

rights, as well as an equal participation by all in social and intel-
lectual enjoyments. By such an equalization of the privileges and
pleasures of political and social life, he would destroy the undue
influence of the rich over the poor, and banish class envy and
discord.

In promoting his views Pericles carried to great length the sys-
tem of payment for the most common public services. Thus, he
introduced the custom of military pay ; hitherto the Athenian sol-
dier had served his country in the field as a matter of honor and
duty. He also secured the payment of the citizen for serving as a
juryman, as well as for his attendance upon the meetings of the
popular assembly. Through his influence, also, salaries were
attached to the various civil offices, the most of which had hitherto
been unpaid positions.

These various measures enabled the poorer citizens to enjoy,
without an inconvenient sacrifice, their franchise in the popular
assembly, and to offer themselves for the different magistracies,
which up to this time had been practically open only to men of
means and leisure.

It was the same motives that prompted the above innovation,
which led the party of Pericles to introduce or to extend the prac-
tice of supplying all the citizens with free tickets to the theatre
and other places of amusement, and of banqueting the people on
festival days at the public expense. Respecting the effect of these
measures upon the Athenian democracy, we shall say a word in
the following paragraph.

Strength and "Weakness of the Athenian Empire. — Under
Pericles Athens had become the most powerful naval state in
the world. In one of his last speeches, made at the outbreak of
the Peloponnesian War, in which he recounts the resources of the
Athenian empire, he says to his fellow-citizens : " There is not
now a king, there is not any nation in the universal world, able to
withstand that navy which at this juncture you can launch out to
sea."

And this was no empty boast. The earlier empires of the East

PERIOD OF ATHENIAN SUPREMACY. S9

that had once held dominion over wide countries had now sunk
into decrepitude, and the later Medo-Persian power that had
arisen upon their ruins, and which at the opening of the fifth
century B.C. was threatening to extend its arms over the world,
had been checked in its insolent advance by Hellenic valor and
discipline, so that at this time there was no power in the East that
the Athenians need fear. In the West, Rome had not yet risen
into prominence, and Carthage was barely able to contend upon
equal terms with the Greek cities of Sicily. Indisputably the
Hellenes were at this moment the predominant race in the world ;
and Athens, notwithstanding the limitations placed upon her am-
bition by the terms of the Thirty Years' Truce, was the real head
of Hellas. She had extended her dominion over a large part of
the Greek cities, and it was but natural that the more sanguine of
her statesmen should believe that she was destined to give laws to
the world.

But the most significant feature of this new imperial power was
the combination of these vast material resources with the most
imposing display of intellectual resources that the world had ever
witnessed. Never before had there been such a union of the
material and intellectual elements of civilization at the seat of
empire. Literature and art had been carried to the utmost perfec-
tion possible to human genius. Art was represented by the inimi-
table creations of Phidias and Polygnotus. The Drama was illus-
trated by the incomparable tragedies of ^schylus, Sophocles, and
Euripides, and by the comedies of Aristophanes, while the writing
of the world's annals had become an art in the graceful narrations
of Herodotus.

But there were elements of weakness in the splendid imperial
structure. The Athenian empire was destined to be short-lived be-
cause the principles upon which it rested were in opposition to the
deepest instinct of the Greek race — the sentiment of local patriot-
ism, which invested each individual city with political sovereignty.
Athens had disregarded this feeling. Pericles himself acknowl-
edged that in the hands of the Athenians, sovereignty had run out

90 - THE A THENIAN EMPIRE.

into a sort of tyranny. The so-called confederates were the slaves
of Athens. To her they paid tribute. To her courts they were
dragged for trial.^ Naturally the subject cities of her empire re-
garded Athens as the destroyer of Hellenic liberties, and watched
impatiently for the first favorable moment to revolt, and throw off
the hateful yoke that she had imposed upon them. Hence the
Athenian empire rested upon a foundation of sand.

Had Athens, instead of enslaving her confederates of the
Delian league, only been able to find out some way of retaining
them as allies in an equal union, — a great and perhaps impossible
task in that age of the world, — as head of the federated Greek race,
she might have secured for Hellas the sovereignty of the Medi-
terranean, and the history of Rome might have ended with the first
century of the Republic.

Furthermore, there were elements of weakness within the Athe-
nian democracy itself. Greatly as Pericles had exalted Athens, and
vastly as he had extended her reputation, still by some of his
measures he had sown the seeds of future evils. In his system of
payment for the most common public services, and of wholesale
public largesses and gratuities, he had introduced or encouraged
practices that had the same demoralizing effects upon the Athe-
nians that the free distribution of corn at Rome at a later time had
upon the Roman populace. These pernicious customs cast dis-
credit upon labor, destroyed frugality, and fostered idleness, thus
sapping the virtues and strength of the Athenian democracy.

Illustrations of these weaknesses, as well as of the strength of
the Athenian empire, will be afforded by the great struggle between
Athens and Sparta known as the Peloponnesian War, the causes
and chief incidents of which we shall next rehearse.

^ The subject cities were allowed to maintain only their lower courts of jus-
tice; all cases of importance were carried to Athens, and there decided by the
Attic tribunals.

SYMPLEQADES I

Selymbria

Byzantiuiql/^lialcedon
0»

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 91

CHAPTER VII.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR: THE SPARTAN AND THE
THEBAN SUPREMACY.

I. The PELOPONNESIAN War (431-404 b.c).

Causes of the War. — During the closing years of the hfe of
Pericles the growing jealousy between Athens and Sparta broke
out in the long struggle known as the Peloponnesian War, to v^hich
we alluded in the preceding chapter. Pericles had foreseen the
coming storm : " I descry war," said he, " lowering from the Pel-
oponnesus." He saw clearly that the jealousies and opposing
principles of the two rival states would, sooner or later, in spite of
truces and treaties, bring them to a final trial of strength. His
whole later policy looked toward the preparation of Athens for
the "irrepressible conflict."

The immediate causes of the war were, first, the interference of
Athens, on the side of the Corcyraeans, in a quarrel between them
and their mother-city Corinth ; and secondly, the blockade by the
Athenians of Potidaea, on the Macedonian coast. This was a Corin-
thian colony, but it was a member of the Delian league, and was
now being chastised by Athens for attempted secession. Corinth,
as the ever-jealous naval rival of Athens, had endeavored to lend
aid to her daughter, but had been worsted in an engagement with
the Athenians.

With affairs in this shape, Corinth, seconded by Megara and
iEgina, both of which had causes of complaint against Athens,
appealed to Sparta, as the head of the Dorian alliance, for aid and
justice. The Spartans, after listening to the deputies of both

92 RESOURCES OF SPARTA AND OF ATHENS.

sides, decided that the Athenians had been guilty of injustice, and
declared for war. The resolution of the Spartans was endorsed by
the Peloponnesian confederation, and apparently approved by the
Delphian oracle, which, in response to an inquiry of the Spartans
as to what would be the issue of the proposed undertaking, assured
them that " they would gain the victory, if they fought with all
their might."

Comparison of the Resources of Sparta and of Athens. — The
resources of Hellas were, at the outbreak of the war, very evenly
divided between the two parties. With Sparta were all the states
of the Peloponnesus, save Argos and Achaia, while beyond the
Isthmus the Megareans, the Boeotian League headed by Thebes,
the Locrians, and the Phocians were her chief allies. Together,
these states could raise a land force of sixty thousand men, besides
a considerable naval armament, Corinth being especially strong in
ships.

Athens commanded all the resources of the subject cities —
about three hundred in number, with twice as many smaller towns
— of her great maritime empire. Her independent alHes were
Chios, Lesbos, Corcyra, and other states. Of course the chief
strength of Athens lay in her splendid navy.

The Beginning : Attack upon Platsea by the Thebans. — The
first act in the long and terrible drama was enacted at night,
within the walls of Platsea. This city, though in Boeotia, was under
the protection of Athens, and would have nothing to do with the
Boeotian League, of which Thebes was the leading city.

Anxious to get possession of this place before the actual out-
break of the war which they saw to be inevitable, the Thebans
planned its surprise and capture. Three hundred Thebans gained
access to the unguarded city in the dead of night, and marching
to the public square, summoned the Plataeans to exchange the
Athenian for a Boeotian alliance.

The Plataeans were upon the point of acceding to all the de-
mands made upon them, when, discovering the small number of
the enemy, they attacked and overpowered them in the darkness.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 93

and took a hundred and eighty of them prisoners. These captives
they afterwards murdered, in violation, as the Thebans always
maintained, of a sacred promise that their lives should be spared.
This wretched affair at Platsea precipitated the war (431 B.C.).

Invasion of Attica: Pestilence at Athens. — A Spartan army
was soon overrunning Attica, while an Athenian fleet was ravaging
the coasts of the Peloponnesus.^ Pericles persuaded the country
people of Attica to abandon their villas and hamlets and gather
within the defences of the city. He did not deem it prudent to risk
a battle in the open fields. From the walls of Athens the people
could see the flames of their burning villages and farmhouses, as
the enemy ravaged the plains of Attica up to the very gates of the
city. It required all the persuasion of Pericles to restrain them
from issuing in a body from behind the ramparts and rushing to
the defence of their homes.

The second year the Lacedaemonians again ravaged the fields
about Athens, and drove the Athenians almost to frenzy with the
sight of the flame and smoke of such property as had escaped
the destruction of the previous year. To increase their misery, a
pestilence broke out within the crowded city, and added its horrors
to the already unbearable calamities of war. No pen could picture
the despair and gloom that settled over the city. Athens lost,
probably, one-fourth of her fighting men. Pericles, v/ho had been
the very soul and life of Athens through these dark days, fell a
victim to the plague (429 B.C.). In dying, he said he considered
his greatest praise to be that " he had never caused an Athenian
to put on mourning."

^ The war is usually divided into three periods, as follows: I. From the
beginning to the Peace of Nicias (431-421 B.C.), often designated as the Ten
Years' War, or the Attic War, from the frequent invasions of Attica by the
Peloponnesians; 2. From the Peace of Nicias to the defeat of the Sicilian
expedition (421-413 B.C.); 3. From the Sicilian disaster to the dismantling
of the defences of Athens (413-404 B.C.), called the Decelean War, from
Decelea, a stronghold in Attica seized and held by the Spartans during this
part of the struggle. This last period is also sometimes called the Ionian War,
because so much of the fighting took place in Ionia.

94 CHARACTER OF THE WAR.

After the death of Pericles the leadership of affairs at Athens
fell into the hands of unprincipled demagogues, of whom Cleon
was chief. The mob element got control of the popular assembly,
so that hereafter we shall find many of its actions characterized
neither by virtue nor wisdom.

Desperate and Cruel Character of the War. — On both sides
the war was waged with the utmost vindictiveness and cruelty. As
a rule, all the men captured by either side were killed.

In the year 428 B.C. the city of Mytilene, on the island of Lesbos,
revolted from the Athenians. With the rebellion suppressed, the
fate of the Mytileneans was in the hands of the Athenian assembly.
Cleon proposed that all the men of the place, six thousand in
number, should be slain, and the women and children sold as
slaves. This infamous decree was passed, and a galley despatched
bearing the sentence for execution to the Athenian general at
Mytilene.

By the next morning, however, the Athenians had repented of
their hasty and cruel resolution. A second meeting of the assem-
bly was hurriedly called ; the barbarous vote was repealed ; and a
swift trireme, bearing the reprieve, set out in anxious haste to
overtake the former galley, which had twenty- four hours the start.
The oarsmen of the trireme, with every nerve strung to the highest
tension by the nature of their errand as well as by the promise of
large rewards dependent upon the success of their mission, urged
the vessel across the ^gean with almost preternatural energy.
The trireme reached the island just in time to prevent the execu-
tion of the cruel edict.

The second resolution of the Athenians, though more discrimi-
nating than the first decree, was quite severe enough. Over one
thousand of the nobles of Mytilene were killed, the city was de-
stroyed, and the larger part of the lands of the island given to
citizens of Athens.

Still more unrelenting and cruel were the Spartans. In the sum-
mer of the same year that the Athenians wreaked such vengeance
upon the Mytileneans, the Spartans and their allies captured the

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 95

city of Platsea, put to death all the men, sold the women as slaves,
and turned the site of the city into pasture-land.^

Events leading up to the Peace of Nicias (421 b.c). — Soon
after the affair at Mytilene and the destruction of Plataea, events
occurred which show how completely the Athenian assembly had
fallen under the influence of unprincipled politicians.

An enterprising general of the Athenians, named Demosthe-
nes, seized and fortified a point of land (Pylos) on the coast of
Messenia. The Spartans made every effort to dislodge the enemy.
In the course of the siege, four hundred Spartans under Brasidas,
having landed upon a little island (Sphacteria) , were so unfortunate
as to be cut off from the mainland by the sudden arrival of an
Athenian fleet. Among the men thus imprisoned were some
members of the first Spartan families.

To effect the release of the men upon the island, the Spartans
sent commissioners to Athens to beg for peace. The terms offered
were such as should at once have been embraced by the Athe-
nians. But Cleon, desiring the war to go on, persuaded the
assembly to reject the offers of the embassadors, and to propose
terms which he knew could not and would not be accepted by
them. The result was the return of the deputies to Sparta, and
the breaking off of the negotiations.

The Athenians soon had occasion to repent of their action.
It was found a difficult matter to capture the Spartans who were
upon the island, and Demosthenes was forced to send to Athens
for reinforcements. Cleon was sent with additional ships and
men. Rather through good fortune than by good generalship, he
succeeded in capturing the Spartans, to the number of about three
hundred, and bringing them prisoners to Athens.

But affairs now took a different turn. The Athenians, hav-
ing imprudently invaded Boeotia, were worsted at the battle of
Delium (424 B.C.). Along with this disaster came other troubles
further to the north. The able and eloquent Spartan general,

1 Read Thucydides' graphic account of the siege and reduction of the city,
Books II, and III.

96

ALCIBIADES AND THE SICILIAN EXPEDITION.

Brasidas, stirred up some of the Thracian allies of Athens to
revolt. In the fighting which followed in this quarter, Cleon and
Brasidas were both killed in battle. Again negotiations for peace
were opened, which, after many embassies to and fro, resulted in
what is known as the Peace of Nicias, from the prominent Athenian
general who is supposed to have had most to do in bringing it
about. The treaty arranged for a truce of fifty years. Each party
was to give up to the other all prisoners and captured places.

Alcibiades and the Sicilian Expedition (415-413 b.c). — The
Peace of Nicias, as Thucydides tells us, was only a nominal one.
Some of the allies of the two principal parties to the truce were dis-
satisfied with it, and consequently its terms were not carried out in
good faith or temper on either side. So the war went on. For about
seven years, however, Athens and Sparta refrained from invading
each other's territory ; but even during this period each was aiding
its allies in making war upon the dependents or confederates of
the other. Finally, hostilities flamed
out in open and avowed war, and
all Hellas was again lit up with the
fires of the fratricidal strife.

The most prominent person on
the Athenian side during this latter
period of the struggle was Alcibiades,
a versatile and brilliant man, but a
reckless and unsafe counsellor. He
was a pupil of Socrates, but he failed
to follow the counsels of his teacher.
His astonishing orgies only seemed
to attach the people more closely
to him, for he possessed all those
personal traits which make men
popular idols. His influence over the democracy was unlimited.
By the unscrupulous employment of the various arts known to the
successful demagogue, he was able to carry through the popular
assembly almost any measure that it pleased him to advocate.

ALCIBIADES

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 97

The more prudent of the Athenians were filled with apprehension
for the future of the state under such guidance. The noted mis-
anthrope Timon gave expression to this feeling when, after Alcibi-
ades had secured the assent of the popular assembly to one of his
impoUtic measures, he said to him : " Go on, my brave boy, and
prosper; for your prosperity will bring on the ruin of all this
crowd." And it did, as we shall see.

The most prosperous enterprise of Alcibiades, in the Timonian
sense, was the inciting the Athenians to undertake an expedition
against the Dorian city of Syracuse, in Sicily. The scheme that
Alcibiades was revolving in his mind was a most magnificent one.
He proposed that the Athenians, after effecting the conquest of
Sicily, should make that island the base of operations against both
Africa and Italy. With the Italians and Carthaginians subdued,
the armaments of the entire Hellenic world outside of the Pelopon-
nesus, were to be turned against the Spartans, who with one blow
should be forever crushed, and Athens be left the arbiter of the
destinies of Hellas.

Alcibiades succeeded in persuading the Athenians to undertake
at least the first part of the colossal enterprise. An immense fleet
was carefully equipped and manned.^ Anxiously did those remain-
ing behind watch the squadron as it bore away from the port of
Athens. Could the watchers have foreseen the fate of the splen-
did armament, their anxiety would have passed into despair. " Ath-
ens itself was sailing out of the Piraeus, never again to return."

Scarcely had the expedition arrived at Sicily, before Alcibiades,
who was one of the leading generals in command of the arma-
ment, was summoned back to Athens to answer a charge of impi-
ety.- Fearing to trust himself in the hands of his enemies at

1 It consisted of one hundred and thirty-four costly triremes, bearing thirty-
six thousand soldiers and sailors. The commanders were Alcibiades, Nicias,
and Lamachus. Later, Demosthenes was sent out with a reinforcement con-
sisting of seventy-three triremes and five thousand soldiers.

2 Just upon the eve of the departure of the expedition, the numerous stat-
ues of Hermes scattered throughout the city were grossly mutilated. The

98 THE FALL OF ATHENS.

Athens, he fled to Sparta, and there, by traitorous counsel, did all
in his power to ruin the very expedition he had planned. He
advised the Spartans to send at once their best general to the Syr-
acusans. They sent Gylippus, an able commander, whose general-
ship contributed largely to the total and irretrievable defeat that
the Athenians finally suffered.^ Their fleet and army were both
virtually annihilated. The Athenian generals Nicias and Demos-
thenes, who with about seven thousand soldiers were made prison-
ers, were condemned to death. Hearing of their sentence, they
committed suicide. The other prisoners were crowded into the
open stone quarries, where hundreds speedily died of exposure and
starvation. Most of the wretched survivors were finally sold as
slaves. The disaster was appalling and complete. The resources
of Athens were wrecked.

The Decelean War: The Fall of Athens. —While the Athe-
nians were before Syracuse, the Spartans, acting upon the advice
of Alcibiades, had taken possession of and fortified a strong and
commanding position known as Decelea, in Attica, only twelve
miles from Athens. This was a thorn in the side of Athens.
Secure in this stronghold, the Spartans could annoy and keep in
terror almost all the Attic plain. Decelea further proved a sort
of city of refuge for the Athenian slaves, thousands of whom here
found an asylum. The occupation by the Spartans of this strategic
point had such a determining influence upon the remainder of
the Peloponnesian War, that this latter portion of it is known as
the Decelean War (413-404 B.C.).

Taking advantage of the terrible misfortunes of Athens, her

sacrilegious act naturally produced a terrible excitement. Alcibiades was
accused of having a hand in the affair, and furthermore of having mimicked
the sacred rites of the Eleusinian mysteries. Taking advantage of the absence
of himself and friends, his enemies had secured the passage of a decree
demanding his recall and trial.

1 The ruin of the Athenians was rendered absolutely complete by the in-
competency and superstition of Nicias, who, an eclipse of the moon occurring,
persisted in following the advice of his soothsayers, and delayed for days a
retreat upon which depended the salvation of his army.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 99

subject-allies now revolted and fell away from her on every side.
The Persians, ever ready to aid the Greeks in destroying one
another, lent a willing ear to the solicitations of the traitor Alci-
biades, and gave help to the Spartans.

The Athenians put forth almost superhuman efforts to retrieve
their fortunes. Had they been united among themselves, perhaps
their efforts would not have been in vain. But the oligarchical
party, for the sake of ruining the democracy were willing to ruin
the empire. While the army was absent from Athens, they over-
turned the government, and established a sort of aristocratical rule
(411 B.C.), under which affairs were in the hands of a council of
Four Hundred.

The Athenian troops, however, who were at Samos, would not
recognize the new government. They voted themselves to be the
true Athens, and forgetting and forgiving the past, recalled Alcibi-
ades, and gave him command of the army, thereby well illustrating
what the poet Aristophanes said respecting the disposition of the
Athenians toward the spoiled favorite, — " They love, they hate,
but cannot live without him."

Alcibiades detached the Persians from the side of the Spartans,
and gained some splendid victories for Athens. But he could not
undo the evil he had done. He had ruined Athens beyond
redemption by any human power. Constantly the struggle grew
more and more hopeless. Alcibiades was defeated, and fearing
to face the Athenians, who had deposed him from his command,
sought safety in flight.

Finally, at ^gospotami, on the Hellespont, the Athenian fleet
was surprised and captured by the Spartans under Lysander (405
B.C.). The prisoners, three thousand in number, were massacred,
and the usual rites of burial denied their bodies.

The battle of ^Egospotami sealed the fate of Athens. "That
night," writes the historian Xenophon, referring to the night upon
which the news of the woful disaster reached Athens, " That night
no man slept."

The towns on the Thracian and Macedonian coasts, and the

100 RESULTS OF THE WAR.

islands of the ^gean belonging to the Athenian Empire, now fell
into the hands of the Peloponnesians. Athens was besieged by
sea and land, and soon forced to surrender.

Some of the allies insisted upon the total destruction of the city,
and the conversion of its site into pasture-land. The Spartans,
however, with apparent magnanimity, declared that they would
never consent thus "to put out one of the eyes of Greece,"
strengthening the argument of the metaphor by urging in behalf
of Athens the great service she had rendered Hellas in her struggle
with the Barbarians.

The real motive, doubtless, of the Spartans in sparing the city
was their fear lest, with Athens blotted out, Thebes or Corinth
should become too powerful. So the city itself was spared, but
the fortifications of Pirseus and the Long Walls were levelled to the
ground, the work of demolition being begun to the accompani-
ment of festive music (404 B.C.) .

Sparta's power was now supreme. She had neither peer nor
rival among all the Grecian states. Throughout the war she had
maintained that her only purpose in warring against Athens was
to regain liberty for the Grecian cities. We shall very soon see
what sort of liberty it was that they enjoyed under her guardian-
ship.

Results of the War. — " Never," says Thucydides, commenting
upon the lamentable results of the Peloponnesian War, the worst
consequences of which, however, he did not live to witness, " Never
had so many cities been made desolate by victories ; . . . never
were there so many instances of banishment; never so many
scenes of slaughter either in battle or sedition."

Athens was but the wreck of her former self. She had lost two
hundred ships and sixty thousand men, including the killed among
her allies. Things were just the reverse now of what they were
at the time of the Persian invasion. When, with all Athens in
ruins, Themistocles at Salamis was taunted by the Spartans with
being a man without a city, he replied grandly, " Athens is here
in her ships." But now the real Athens was gone : only the empty
shell remained.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 101

And all the rest of Hellas showed the marks of the cruel war.
Spots where once had stood large towns were now pasture-land.
But more lamentable than all else besides, was the effect of the
war upon the intellectual and moral life of the Greek race. The
Grecian world had sunk many degrees in morality ; while the vigor
and productiveness of the intellectual and artistic life of Hellas,
the centre and home of which had been Athens, were impaired
beyond recovery. The achievements of the Greek intellect, espe-
cially in the fields of philosophic thought, in the century following
the war were, it is true, wonderful ; but these triumphs merely
show, we may believe, what the Hellenic mind would have done
for art and general culture, had it been permitted, unchecked, and
under the favoring and inspiring conditions of liberty and self-
government, to disclose all that was latent in it.

II. The Spartan and the Theban Supremacy.

Spartan Supremacy. — For just one generation following the
Peloponnesian War (404-371 B.C.), Sparta held the leadership of
the Grecian states. Aristocratical governments, with institutions
similar to the Spartan, were established in the different cities of
the old Athenian Empire. At Athens, the democratical constitu-
tion of Solon, under which the Athenians had attained their great-
ness, was abolished, and an oppressive oligarchy established in
its stead. The Thirty Tyrants, however, who administered this
government were, after eight months' infamous rule, driven from
the city, and the old democratic constitution, somewhat modified,
was re-estabhshed (403 B.C.).

It was during this period that Socrates, the greatest moralist
and teacher of antiquity, was condemned to death, because his
teachings were thought contrary to the religion of the Athenians.
To this era also belongs the well-known expedition of the Ten
Thousand Greeks.

102 . THE PEACE OF ANTALCIDAS.

Expedition of the Ten Thousand (401-400 b.c). — The aid
given by the Persians to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War was not
altogether unselfish, Cyrus, satrap of the Persian provinces of
Asia Minor, thinking that his brother Artaxerxes held the throne
unjustly,^ was secretly planning to seize it for himself. In the
latter part of the Peloponnesian War, when he saw the tide of
events turning against Athens, he lent aid to the Spartans ; pro-
posing thus to place them under obligation to himself, so that he
could ask their aid in his contemplated enterprise. Now the time
had come for the return of the favor. To the army of one hun-
dred thousand barbarians which Cyrus had raised in Asia, the
Spartans added about eleven thousand Greek soldiers.

With this force Cyrus set out from Sardis, in the spring of
401 B.C. He marched without opposition across Asia Minor and
Mesopotamia to Babylonia, into the very heart of the Persian
Empire. Here, at Cunaxa, he was confronted by Artaxerxes with
a force of more than half a million of men. The barbarian allies
of Cyrus were scattered at the first onset of the enemy ; but the
Greeks stood like a rampart of rock. Cyrus, however, was slain ;
and the other Greek generals, having been persuaded to enter into
a council, were treacherously murdered by the Persians.

The Greeks, in a hurried night meeting, chose new generals to
lead them back to their homes. One of these was Xenophon, the
popular historian of the expedition. Now commenced one of the
most memorable retreats in all history. After a most harassing
march over the hot plains of the Tigris and the icy passes of
Armenia, the survivors reached the. Black Sea, the abode of sister
Greek colonies.

Decline of the Spartan State: the Peace of Antalcidas (387
B.C.). — The part taken by the Greeks in the enterprise of Cyrus

1 " It was a matter of dispute whether the right of succession belonged to
the eldest son, or to the son born first after his father's accession to the throne.
The accession of Xerxes had been decided by the fact that he was born during
the reign of Darius." — Ranke. According to this precedent, the throne now
belonged to Cyrus.

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. 103

led the Persian monarch Artaxerxes to seek revenge by interfering
anew in the affairs of Greece. The Greek cities of Asia were the
first to feel the resentment of the Great King. The Spartans,
under their king Agesilaus, extended them timely and efficient aid.
At one time it seemed as though the Persian authority in Asia
Minor would be completely destroyed.

But meanwhile Persian gold was effecting in Greece what the
Persian sword was unable to accomplish in Asia. The emissaries
of Artaxerxes, by persuasions and bribes, had secured a coalition
of the Grecian states against Sparta, and the threatening move-
ments of these forced Agesilaus to return in haste to defend his
own country. A disastrous struggle known as the Corinthian War
(395-387 B.C.) now followed, in which the Spartans contended
against the Athenians, the Thebans, the Corinthians, the Argives,
and the Persians. Finally, after all parties were weary of the con-
test, the war was ended by the Peace of Antalcidas, so called
from the Spartan commissioner who arranged the articles of the
treaty.

By the terms of this peace, famous because so infamous, all the
Greek cities of Asia Minor, as well as the island of Cyprus and
the island-city of Clazomenae, were handed over to the Persians.
Three islands — Lemnos, Imbros, and Scyros — were given to
Athens. All the other islands, and the states of the Grecian main-
land, were left each in a condition of isolated independence. No
city was to rule over others, or to exact tribute from them. The
edict of King Artaxerxes closed as follows : " Whosoever refuses
to accept this peace, him I shall fight, assisted by those who are
of the same mind [which meant the Spartans], by land as well as
by sea, with ships and with money."

Sparta has been accused of selfishness in the part she took in
forcing the Grecian states to accept the terms of the Peace of
Antalcidas. But we should not be too ready to cast blame upon
her. It is true that, in order to break the coalition that had been
formed against her, she bartered away the liberties of the Hellenic
cities in Asia ; but we must bear in mind that this measure was

104 THEBAN SUPREMACY.

dictated by the instinct of self-preservation. There were at Sparta
some at least animated by feelings of sufficiently generous patri-
otism to cause them to lament the circumstances that thus laid
Greece open to the mercy of her enemy. Among these was the
patriot king Agesilaus, whom Plutarch calls the "Thought Com-
mander and King of all Greece." Referring to the jealousies and
contentions of the Hellenic states which had now resulted in mak-
ing the hated Persians arbiters in their affairs, he exclaimed, " Alas
for Greece ! she has killed enough of her sons to have conquered
all these Barbarians."

The Peace of Antalcidas left Sparta free to prosecute anew her
schemes of aggression and tyranny towards the other Grecian
states, which were now too divided and weakened to offer any effec-
tual resistance to her oppressive course. But finally the fiery
resentment kindled by her tyrannous measures inspired such
a determined revolt against her as brought to an end her assumed
supremacy over her sister cities.

Theban Supremacy (371-362 b.c). — It was a city in Boeotia
that led the uprising against Sparta. This was Thebes. The oli-
garchical government which the Lacedaemonians had set up in that
capital was overthrown by Pelopidas at the head of the so-called
Sacred Band, a company of three hundred select men who were
bound by oath to stand by each other to the last. Pelopidas was
seconded in all his efforts by Epaminondas, one of the ablest
generals the Grecian race ever produced. Under the masterly
guidance and inspiration of these patriot leaders, Thebes very
soon secured a predominating influence in the affairs of Greece.

Like many others who have done most for their generation,
Epaminondas was often unjustly accused and persecuted. He it
was who, when his enemies sought to disgrace and annoy him by
electing him " public scavenger," made, in accepting the office,
the memorable utterance, " If the office will not reflect honor upon
me, I will reflect honor upon it."

At Leuctra (371 b.c.) the Thebans earned the renown of being
the most invincible soldiers in the world by completely overthrow-

THE PELOPONNESIAN' WAR. 106

ing, with a force of six thousand men, the Spartan army of twice
that number. This is said to have been the first time that the
Spartans were ever fairly defeated in open battle. Their forces had
been annihilated, as at Thermopylae, — but annihilation is not
defeat.

From the victory of Leuctra dates the short but brilliant period
of Theban hegemony. The year after that battle Epaminondas
led an army into the Peloponnesus to aid the Arcadians, who
had risen against Sparta. Laconia was ravaged, and for the
first time Spartan women saw the smoke of fires kindled by an
enemy.

To strengthen Arcadia's power of resistance to Sparta, Epami-
nondas perfected a league among the hitherto isolated towns and
cantons of the district. As the mutual jealousies of the leading
cities prevented him from making any one of them the capital of
the confederation, he founded Megalopolis, or the Great City, and
made it the head of the union.

In the pursuit of the same policy, Epaminondas also restored
the independence of Messenia, thus enforcing upon Sparta in
regard to this province the terms of the Peace of Antalcidas.
That the liberated Messenians might be better able to maintain
the independence he had restored to them, Epaminondas founded
as a stronghold a city, called Messene, upon Mount Ithome, a
rocky eminence made renowned through its heroic defence by
the Messenians in their old-time wars with Sparta.

Thus, almost in a day, did Epaminondas, as he himself said,
" make all Greece free, restore independence to Messenia, and
surround Sparta with a perpetual blockade."

But, moved by jealousy of the rapidly growing power of Thebes,
Athens now formed an alliance with her old rival Sparta against
her. Three times more did Epaminondas lead an army into the
Peloponnesus in the interest of Thebes, and for the furtherance
of his ambitious plans. During his third and last expedition he
fought with the Spartans and Athenians the great battle of Manti-
nea, in Arcadia. On this memorable field, Epaminondas led the

106 THEBAN SUPREMACY.

Thebans once more to victory ; but he himself was slain, and with
him fell the hopes and power of Thebes (362 B.C.).

All the states of Greece now lay exhausted, worn out by their
endless domestic contentions and wars. There was scarcely suffi-
cient strength left to strike one worthy blow against enslavement
by the master destined soon to come from the North.

EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. 1C7

CHAPTER VIII.

PERIOD OF MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY: EMPIRE OF
ALEXANDER.

(338-323 B-C-)

Macedonian Enlers of Hellenic Race. — Although political
power and influence have now passed away from the Grecian
cities of Sparta, Athens, and Thebes, still we must not think that
political authority has departed from the Hellenic race ; for
though the mass of the population of the country of Macedonia,
which lay to the north of Greece proper, and which is now to
assume the lead in the civil affairs of the Greeks, may not have
sprung from the same identical stock as that from which the
Hellenes arose, still the ruling class of that country were the same
in race, language, and religion. The kings even took part in the
Olympian games — a privilege accorded to none but pure Hellenes.
Their efforts to spread Greek art and culture among their subjects,
a race of rough but brave and martial men, unaccustomed to city
life, had been so far successful that the country had, to a certain
degree, become Hellenized.

So this period of Macedonian supremacy upon which we are
entering belongs to the history of the political life of the Greek
race, as well as the eras marked by Athenian, Spartan, or Theban
leadership. It was Hellenic institutions, customs, and manners,
Hellenic language and civilization, that the Macedonians, in the
extended conquests which we are about to narrate, spread over
the world.^ It is this which makes the short-lived Macedonian
empire so important in universal history.

^ Of course it was rather the outer forms than the real inner life and spirit
of the old Greek civilization which were adopted by the non-Hellenic peoples

108 PHILIP OF MACEDON.

Philip of Macedon. — Macedonia first rose to importance dur-
ing the reign of Philip 11. (359-336 B.C.), better known as Philip
of Macedon. He was a man of pre-eminent ability, of wonderful
address in diplomacy, and possessed rare genius as an organizer
and military chieftain. The art of war he had learned in youth
as a hostage-pupil of Epaminondas of Thebes. He was the
originator of the " Macedonian phalanx," a body as renowned in
the military history of Macedonia as is the " legion " in that of
Rome.^

With his kingdom settled and consolidated at home, Philip's
ambition led him to seek the leadership of the Grecian states.
He sought to gain his purpose rather by artful diplomacy and
intrigue than by open force. In the use of these weapons he
might have been the teacher of the Athenian Themistocles.

Conquest of Olynthus and Thrace. — By force and intrigue
Philip extended his power over the Greek cities of Chalcidice, a
number of which under the lead of Olynthus formed a league
known as the Olynthian Confederacy, The Athenians had inter-
ests in this quarter, several cities of the peninsula being subject to
them, and they, as soon as their eyes were opened to Philip's real
designs by his treacherous deaUngs with them, set themselves to
thwart his plans. But they unfortunately acted with little of their
old-time energy, and the result was that Philip had very much his
own way. He first made friends of the Olynthians, and then, in
punishment for their having given up their aUiance with him. for
one with Athens, he took and destroyed Olynthus, and sold the

of Egypt and Western Asia. Hence the resulting culture is given a special
name. "This civilization, Greek in its general character, but pervading peo-
ple not exclusively Greek by race, is properly called Hellenism, which means,
— not ' being Hellenes,' or Greeks, but — ' doing like Hellenes '; and as the
adjecl've answering to Hellas is Hellenic, so the adjective answering to Hel-
lenism is Hellenistic.^^ — Jebb, Greek Literature, p. 138.

^ The phalanx was formed of soldiers drawn up sixteen files deep, and
armed with pikes so long that those of the first five ranks projected beyond
the front of the column, thus opposing a perfect thicket of spears to the enemy.
On level ground it was irresistible.

EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. 109

inhabitants into slavery (348 B.C.). He also destroyed thirty other
towns in the peninsula. Thus all Chalcidice became a part of
Macedonia.

Meanwhile Philip was also subduing the barbarians of Thrace,
and pushing his eastern frontier towards the Hellespont. All the
western part of Thrace, with its rich gold mines, quickly fell into
his hands. In this quarter he founded the important and well-
known city of Philippi.^ At a later period, his attempt against
Byzantium was foiled by the Athenians, who aided the inhabitants
in the defence of their city, because it was the key to the Black
Sea region, in the trade of which the Athenians were deeply inter-
ested, as they drew from thence their supplies of corn.

The Second Sacred War (355-346 b.c). — At the same time
that Philip was thus extending his power over Thrace and the
Greek cities of Chalcidice, he was, in the following way, acquiring
a commanding position in the affairs of the states of Greece
proper.

The Phocians had put to secular use some of the lands which,
at the end of the First Sacred War (see p. 32), had been conse-
crated to the Delphian Apollo. Taken to task and heavily fined
for this act by the other members of the Delphian Amphictyony,
the Phocians deliberately robbed the temple, and used the treas-
ure in the maintenance of a large, force of mercenary soldiers-
Thus they were enabled to hold out against all their enemies, chief
among whom were the Thebans. The Amphictyons not being
able to punish the Phocians for their impiety, were forced to ask
help of Philip, who gladly rendered the assistance sought.

The Phocians were now quickly subdued, their cities were
destroyed, and the inhabitants scattered in villages and forced to
pay tribute to the Delphian Apollo. The place that the Phocians
had held in the Delphian Amphictyony was given to Philip, upon

1 Philippi was the first European city in which the Gospel was preached.
The preacher was the Apostle Paul, who went over from Asia in obedience to
the vision in which a man of Macedonia seemed to stand and pray, " Come
over into Macedonia, and help us."

no BATTLE OF CHMRONEA.

whom was also bestowed the privilege of presiding at the Pythian
games. The position he had now secured was just what Philip
had coveted, in order that he might use it to make himself master
of all Greece.

Battle of Chaeronea (338 b.c.) . — Demosthenes at Athens was
one of the few who seemed to understand the real designs of
Philip. His penetration, like that of Pericles, descried a cloud
lowering over Greece — this time from the North. With all the
energy of his wonderful eloquence, he strove to stir up the
Athenians to resist the encroachments of the king of Macedon.
He hurled against him his famous " Philippics," speeches so filled
with fierce denunciation that they have given name to all writings
characterized by bitter criticism or violent invective.

At length the Athenians and Thebans, aroused by the oratory
of Demosthenes and by some fresh encroachments of the Mace-
donians, united their forces, and met Philip upon the memorable
field of Chaeronea in Boeotia. The Macedonian phalanx swept
everything before it. The Theban band was annihilated. The
power and authority of Philip were now extended and acknowl-
edged throughout Greece (338 B.C.).

Plan to Invade Asia. — While the Greek states were divided
among themselves, they were united in an undying hatred of the
Persians. They were at this time meditating an enterprise fraught
with the greatest importance to the history of the world. This
was a joint expedition against Persia. The march of the Ten
Thousand Greeks through the very heart of the dominions of the
Great King had encouraged this national undertaking, and illus-
trated the feasibility of the conquest of Asia. At a great council
of the Grecian cities held at Corinth, Philip was chosen leader of
this expedition. All Greece was astir with preparation. In the
midst of all, Philip was assassinated during the festivities attending
the marriage of his daughter, and his son Alexander succeeded to
his place and power (336 b.c.) .

Alexander the Great. — Alexander was only twenty years of
age when he came to his father's throne. The genius which has

EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER.

Ill

won for him the title of " Great " was foreshadowed in early youth.
The familiar and well-told story of the vicious steed Bucephalus,
which none dared mount or approach, but which was subdued in
a moment by the boy Alexander, exhibits that subtle magnetism

HEAD OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

of his nature by which he acquired such wonderful influence and
command over men in after-years. The spirit of the man is again
shown in the complaint of the boy when news of his father's
victories came to him : " Friends," said he to his playmates,

112 ALEXANDER CROSSES THE HELLESPONT.

" my father will possess himself of everything, and leave nothing
for us to do."

Alexander crosses the Hellespont (334 b.c). — For about two
years Alexander was busy suppressing revolts against his power
among the 'different cities of Hellas, and chastising hostile tribes
on the northern frontiers of Macedonia. Thebes having risen
against him, he razed the city to the ground, — sparing, however,
the house of the poet Pindar, — and sold thirty thousand of the
inhabitants into slavery. Thus was one of the most renowned of
the cities of Greece blotted out of existence.

Alexander was now free to carry out his father's scheme in
regard to the Asiatic expedition. In the spring of 334 B.C., with
all his plans matured, he set out, at the head of an army number-
ing about thirty-five thousand men, for the conquest of the Persian
Empire. Now commenced one of the most remarkable and
swiftly executed campaigns recorded in history.

Crossing the Hellespont, Alexander routed the Persians at the
important battle of the Granicus, by which victory all Asia Minor
was laid open to the invader. Three hundred suits of armor,
selected from the spoils of the field, were sent as a votive offering
to the Temple of Athena at Athens.

The Gordian Knot. — On Alexander's route through Asia Minor
was the city of Gordium, where, in the temple of Zeus, hung
the celebrated Gordian knot. Respecting this the following story
is told : An oracle had commanded the Phrygians, in a time of
great perplexity, to choose as their king the first person that came
to sacrifice in the Temple of Zeus. The peasant Gordius was
the one whom chance designated. He was riding in a wagon
when the people proclaimed him king. Some accounts, however,
say that it was his son Midas — who was with his father — that
was elevated to the throne. Grateful to the gods for the honor
that had fallen upon his house, Gordius consecrated the wagon as
a memorial in the temple of Zeus.

It was gradually spread abroad that an oracle had declared that
whoever should untie the skilfully fastened knot which united the

^

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DOMINIONS
AND DEPENDENCIES OF

ALEXANDER

C.B.C.323.

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EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. 113

yoke to the pole of the chariot would be master of Asia. Alex-
ander attempted the feat. Unable to loosen the artful knot, he
impetuously drew his sword and cut it. Hence the phrase " cut-
ting the Gordian knot," meaning a short way out of a difficulty.
The marvellous fulfilment of the prediction in the subsequent suc-
cesses of Alexander gave new faith and credit to the oracle.

The Battle of Issus (333 b.c). — At the northeast comer
of the Mediterranean Ues the plain of Issus. Here Alexander
again defeated the Persian army, numbering six hundred thousand
men. The family of Darius, including his mother, wife, and chil-
dren, fell into the hands of Alexander; but the king himself
escaped from the field, and hastened to his capital, Susa, to raise
another army to oppose the march of the conqueror.

Siege of Tyre (332 b.c). — Before penetrating to the heart of
the empire, Alexander turned to the south, in order to effect the
subjugation of Phoenicia; that he might command the Phoenician
fleets and prevent their being used to sever his communication
with Greece. The island city of Tyre, after a memorable siege,
was taken by means of a mole, or causeway, built with incredible
labor through the sea to the city. This mole was constructed out
of the ruins of old Tyre and the forests of Lebanon. It still
remains, uniting the desolate rock with the mainland. When at
last, with the aid of the Sidonian fleet, the city was taken, after
a siege of seven months, eight thousand of the inhabitants were
slain, and thirty thousand sold into slavery — a terrible warning
to those cities that should dare to close their gates against the
Macedonian. The reduction of Tyre has been considered the
greatest military achievement of Alexander.

Alexander in Egypt. — With the cities of Phoenicia and the
fleets of the Mediterranean subject to his control, Alexander easily
effected the conquest of Egypt. The Egyptians, indeed, made no
resistance to the Macedonians, but willingly exchanged masters.

While in the country, Alexander founded, at one of the mouths
of the Nile, a city called after himself, Alexandria. Ranke be-
lieves this to ha.ve been the " first city in the world, after the

114 THE BATTLE OF ARBELA.

Pirgeus at Athens, erected expressly for purposes of commerce."
The city became the meeting-place of the East and the West ;
and its importance through many centuries attests the far-sighted
wisdom of its founder.

A less worthy enterprise of the conqueror was his expedition to
the oasis of Sivvah, located in the Libyan desert, where were a cel-
ebrated temple and oracle of Zeus Ammon. To gratify his own
vanity, as well as to impress the superstitious barbarians, Alexander
desired to be declared of celestial descent. The priests of the
temple, in accordance with the wish of the king, gave out that the
oracle pronounced Alexander to be the son of Zeus Ammon, and
the destined ruler of the world.

The Battle of Arbela (331 b.c). — From Egypt Alexander
recommenced his march towards the Persian capital. He had
received offers of peace from Darius, but to these he is said to
have replied, " There cannot be two suns in the heavens." Pushing
on, he crossed the Euphrates and the Tigris without opposition ;
but upon the plain of Arbela, not far from ancient Nineveh, he
found his further advance disputed by Darius with an immense
army. Again the Macedonian phalanx " cut through the ranks of
the Persians as a boat cuts through the waves." Darius fled from
the field, only to be treacherously assassinated by one of his own
generals. Alexander avenged his death, and caused his body to
be buried with all the pompous ceremonial of the Persians.

The battle of Arbela was one of the decisive combats of history.
It marked the end of the long struggle between the East and the
West, between Persia and Greece, and prepared the way for the
spread of Hellenic civilization over all Western Asia.

Alexander at Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis. — From the field
of Arbela Alexander marched south to Babylon, which opened its
gates to him without opposition. To attach the Babylonians to
himself, he restored the temples which Xerxes had destroyed, and
offered sacrifices in the temple of Bel.

Susa was next entered by the conqueror. Here he seized

EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. 115

incredible quantities of gold and silver (;?5 7,000,000, it is said),
the treasure of the Great King.

From Susa Alexander's march was next directed to Persepolis,
where he secured a treasure more than twice as great ($138,000,-
000, according to some) as that found at Susa. Upon Persepolis
Alexander wreaked vengeance, for all Greece had suffered at the
hands of the Persians. Many of the inhabitants were massacred,
and others sold into slavery ; while the palaces of the Persian kings
were given to the flames.

Alexander, having thus overthrown the power of Darius, now
began to regard himself, not only as his conqueror, but as his suc-
cessor, and was thus looked upon by the Persians. He assumed
the pomp and state of an Oriental monarch, and required the most
obsequious homage from all who approached him. His Greek
and Macedonian companions, unused to paying such servile
adulation to their king, were much displeased at Alexander's
conduct, and from this time on to his death, intrigues and con-
spiracies were being constantly formed among them against his
power and life.

Alexander in the Arian Home.— Urged on by an uncontrollable
desire to possess himself of the most remote countries of which
any accounts had ever reached him, Alexander now led his army
to the north, and, after subduing many tribes that dwelt about the
Caspian Sea and among the mountainous regions of what is now
known as Afghanistan, boldly conducted his soldiers over the
snowy and dangerous passes of Hindu Kush, and descended into
Bactria. Had Alexander possessed our modern knowledge of the
relationships of the different Arian peoples, he might have claim-
ed, as he would have been very likely to do, the entire country as
having once belonged to his ancestors.^

During the years 329-328 B.C. Alexander conquered not only
Bactria, but Sogdiana, a country lying north of the Oxus. The
capture of the Sogdian Rock is considered one of his great

* Ste High School English Grammar, pp. lo, II,

116 CONQUESTS IN INDIA.

exploits. Among the captives was a beautiful Bactrian princess,
Roxana by name, who became the bride of Alexander.

Throughout those distant regions Alexander founded numerous
cities, several of which bore his own name. One of them is said
to have been built, wall and houses, in twenty days. These new
cities were peopled with captives, and by those whom fatigue and
wounds would no longer allow to follow the conqueror in his swift
campaigns.

Alexander's stay in Sogdiana was saddened by his murder of
his dearest friend Clitus, who had saved his life at the Granicus.
Both were flushed with wine when the quarrel arose : after the
deed, Alexander was overwhelmed with remorse.^

Conquests in India. — With the countries north of the Hindu
Kush subdued and settled, Alexander recrossed the mountains,
and led his army down upon the rich and crowded plains of
India (327 b.c). Here again he showed himself invincible, and
received the submission of many of the native princes of the
country.

The most formidable resistance encountered by the Macedo-
nians was offered by a strong and wealthy king named Poms.
Captured at last and brought into the presence of Alexander, his
proud answer to the conqueror's question as to how he thought he
ought to be treated was, " Like a king." The impulsive Alexander
gave him back his kingdom, to be held, however, subject to the
Macedonian crown.

Alexander's desire was to extend his conquests to the Ganges,
but his soldiers began to murmur because of the length and hard-
ness of their campaigns, and he reluctandy gave up the under-
taking. To secure the conquests already made, he founded, at
different points in the valley of the Indus, Greek towns and colo-

1 The Macedonian kingdom which grew out of the conquests of Alexander
in Central Asia, lasted for about two centuries after his death; that is, these
Bactrian countries were ruled by Hellenic princes for that length of time. Tra-
ditions of the conqueror still linger in the land, and coins, and plate with sub-
jects from classic mythology, are frequently turned up at the present day.

EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. 117

nies. One of these he named Alexandria, after himself ; another
Bucephala, in memory of his favorite steed ; and still another
Nicaea, for his victories. The modem museum at Lahore con-
tains many relics of Greek art, dug up on the site of these Mace-
donian cities and camps.

Eediscovery of the Sea-route from the Indus to the Euphra-
tes. — It was Alexander's next care to bind these distant con-
quests in the East to those in the West. To do this, it was of the
first importance to establish water-communication between India
and Babylonia. Now, strange as it may seem, the Greeks had no
positive knowledge of what sea the Indus emptied into, and only
a vague idea that there was a water-way from the Indus to the
Euphrates. This important maritime route, once known to the
civilized world, had been lost, and needed to be rediscovered.

So the conqueror Alexander now turned explorer. He sailed
down the Indus to the head of the delta, where he founded a city,
which he called Alexandria. This was to be to the trade of India
what Alexandria upon the Nile was to that of Egypt. With this
new commercial city established, Alexander sailed on down to the
mouth of the river, and was rejoiced to find himself looking out
upon the southern ocean.

He now despatched his trusty admiral Nearchus, with a consid-
erable fleet, to explore this sea, and to determine whether it com-
municated with the Euphrates. He himself, with the larger part
of the army, marched westsvard along the coast. His march thus
lay through the ancient Gedrosia, now Beluchistan, a region fright-
ful with burning deserts, amidst which his soldiers endured almost
incredible privations and sufferings.

After a trying and calamitous march of over two months, Alex-
ander, with the survivors of his army, reached Carmania. Here,
to his unbounded joy, he was joined by Nearchus, who had made
the voyage ft-om the Indus successfully, and thus " rediscovered
one of the most important maritime routes of the world," the
knowledge of which, among the Western nations, was never again
to be lost.

118 PLANS AND DEATH OF ALEXANDER.

To celebrate appropriately his conquests and discoveries, Alex-
ander instituted a series of religious festivals, amidst vvhich his
soldiers forgot the dangers of their numberless battles and the
hardships of their unparalleled marches, which had put to the test
every power of human endurance.

And well might these veterans glory in their achievements. In
a few years they had conquered half the world, and changed the
whole course of history.

Flans and Death of Alexander. — As the capital of his vast
empire, which now stretched from the Ionian Sea to the Indus,
Alexander chose the ancient Babylon, upon the Euphrates. His
designs, we have reason to believe, were to push his conquests as
far to the west as he had extended them to the east. Arabia, Car-
thage, Italy, and Spain were to be added to his already vast
domains. Indeed, the plans of Alexander embraced nothing less
than the union and Hellenizing of the world. Not only were the
peoples of Asia and Europe to be blended by means of colonies,
but even the floras of the two continents were to be intermingled
by the transplanting of fruits and trees from one continent to the
other. Common laws and customs, a common language and a
common religion, were to unite the world into one great family.
Intermarriages were to blend the races. Alexander himself mar-
ried a daughter of Darius III., and also one of Artaxerxes Ochus ;
and to ten thousand of his soldiers, whom he encouraged to take
Asiatic wives, he gave magnificent gifts. '

In the midst of his vast projects, Alexander was seized by a
fever, brought on, doubtless, by his insane excesses, and died
at Babylon, 323 b.c, in the thirty-second year of his age. His
soldiers could not let him die without seeing him. The watchers
of the palace were obliged to open the doors to them, and the
veterans of a hundred batde-fields filed sorrowfully past the couch
of their dying commander. His body was carried, first, to Mem-
phis, but afterwards to Alexandria, in Egypt, and there enclosed in
a golden coffin, over which was raised a splendid mausoleum.
m§ ambitiou for celestial honors was gratified in his death ^ for in

EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER. 119

Egypt and elsewhere temples were dedicated to him, and divine
worship was paid to his statues.

Character of Alexander. — We must not pass this point with-
out a word, at least, respecting the character of this remarkable
man, who, in a brief career of twelve years, changed entirely the
currents of history, and pressed them into channels which they
would not have followed but for the influence of his life and
achievements.

We cannot deny to Alexander, in addition to a remarkable
genius for military affairs, a profound and comprehensive intellect.
The wisdom shown in the selection of Alexandria in Egypt as the
great depot of the exchanges of the East and West has been amply
proved by the rare fortunes of that city. His plans for the union
of Europe and Asia, and the fusion of their different races, might
indeed seem visionary, were it not that the degree in which this
was actually realized during subsequent centuries attests the sanity
of the attempt. He had fine tastes, and liberally encouraged art,
science, and literature. Apelles, Praxiteles, and Lysippus had in
him a munificent patron ; and to his preceptor Aristotle he sent
large collections of natural-history objects, gathered in his extended
expeditions. He had an impulsive, kind, and generous nature :
he avenged the murder of his enemy Darius ; and he repented in
bitter tears over the body of his faithful Clitus. He exposed him-
self like the commonest soldier, sharing with his men the hard-
ships of the march and the dangers of the battle-field.

But he was self-seeking and self-indulgent, foolishly vain, and
madly ambitious of miUtary glory. He plunged into shameful
excesses, and gave way to bursts of passion that transformed a
usually mild and generous disposition into the fury of a madman.
The vindictive cruelty he manifested in his treatment of the Tyrians
can be only partially palUated by reference to the spirit and usages
of his age. The contradictions of his life cannot, perhaps, be
better expressed than in the words once applied to the gifted
Themistocles : '* He was greater in genius than in character."

Eesults of Alexander's Conc[uest8. — The remarkable conquests

120 RESULTS OF ALEXANDER'S CONQUESTS.

of Alexander had far-reaching consequences. They ended the
long struggle between Persia and Greece, and spread Hellenic
civilization over Egypt and Western Asia The distinction be-
tween Greek and Barbarian was obliterated, and the sympathies
of men, hitherto so narrow and local, were widened, and thus an
important preparation was made for the reception of the cosmo-
politan creed of Christianity. The world was also given a universal
language of culture, which was a further preparation for the spread
of Christian teachings. Nor should we fail to recall the redis-
covery of the maritime route from India to Europe, which the
historian Ranke, regarding its influence upon trade and com-
merce, views as one of the most important results of Alexander's
expedition.

But the evil effects of the conquest were also positive and far-
reaching. The sudden acquisition by the Greeks of the enormous
wealth of the Persian Empire, and contact with the vices and
effeminate luxury of the Oriental nations, had a most demoralizing
effect upon Hellenic life. Greece became corrupt, and she in
turn corrupted Rome. Thus the civilization of antiquity was
undermined.

EMPIRE Of ALEXANDER,

121

CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF GRECIAN HISTORY TO THE
DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

Legendary Age .

Early History of
Sparta . . .

Early History of
Athens . . .

Period of Grseco-
PersiaaWar .

Period of Athenian
Supremacy . .

Events of the Pelo-
ponnesian War .

Period of Spartan
Supremacy

Period of Theban
Supremacy

Period of Macedo-
nian Supremacy .

The Trojan War, legendary date . . .

The Dorians enter tlie Peloponnesus, about

Lycurgus gives laws to Sparta. .

The Messenian Wars ....

Rule of the Archons

Rebellion of Cylon .....

Legislation of Solon

Pisistratus rules

Expulsion of the Pisistratidae

First Expedition of Darius (led by Mar-
donius)

Battle of Marathon

Battle of Thermopylae

Battle of Salamis

Battles of Plataea and Mycale

Athens rebuilt

Aristides chosen first president of the Con-
federacy of Delos

Themistocles sent into exile

Ostracism of Cimon

Pericles at the head of affairs — Periclean
Age

Beginning of the Peloponnesian War . .

Pestilence at Athens

Expedition against Syracuse

Battle of ^gospotami

Close of the War .

Rule of the Thirty Tyrants at Athens . .

Expedition of the Ten Thousand . . .

Peace of Antalcidas

Oligarchy established at Thebes ....

Spartan power broken on the field of Leuc-
tra

Battle of Leuctra which secures the suprem-
acy of Thebes

Battle of Mantinea and death of Epaminon-
das

Battle of Chseronea

Death of Philip of Macedon

Alexander crosses the Hellespont . . .

Battle of Issus

Battle of Arbela

. Death of Alexander at Babylon ....

1 1 94-1 184

1 104

850

750-650

1050-612
612

594

560-527

510

492
490
480
480
479
478

477
471
459

459-431
431
430

415
405

404
404-403
401-400

387
382

371

371

362
338

334

331
323

122 DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER.

CHAPTER IX.

STATES FORMED FROM THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER.

Division of the Empire of Alexander. — There was no one
who could wield the sword that fell from the hand of Alexander.
It is told that, when dying, being asked to whom the kingdom
should belong, he replied, "To the strongest," and handed his
signet ring to his general Perdiccas. But Perdiccas was not strong
enough to master the difficulties of the situation.' Indeed, who
is strong enough to rule the world?

Consequently the vast empire created by Alexander's unpar-
alleled conquests was distracted by quarrels and wars, and before
the close of the fourth century B.C., had become broken into many
fragments. Besides minor states,^ four well-defined and important

1 Perdiccas ruled as regent for Philip Arridseus (an illegitimate brother of
Alexander), who was proclaimed titular king.

2 Two of these lesser states, Rhodes and Pontus, deserve special notice.
Rhodes. — Rhodes became the head of a maritime confederation of the

cities and islands along the coasts of Asia Minor, and thus laid the basis of a
remarkable commercial prosperity and naval power. It was one of the chief
centres of Hellenistic culture, and acquired a wide fame through its schools
of art and rhetoric. Julius Caesar became a student here under Rhodian
teachers of oratory.

Pontus. — Pontus (Greek for sea), a state of Asia Minor, was so called
from its position upon the Euxine. It was never thoroughly conquered by the
Macedonians. It has a place in history mainly because of the lustre shed
upon it by the transcendent abihty of one of its kings, Mithridates the Great
(120-63 B.C.), who spread the fame of his little kingdom throughout the
world by his able, and for a long time successful, resistance to the Roman
arms. But his wars with Rome belong rather to the history of that city than
to the annals of Greece.

J- 1

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iS E I, B

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30

^

4>

,

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KINGDOMS
of the

SUCCESSORS of ALEXANDER

C. B, C. 300.

Dominions of Ptolemy CIJ

^ TaxaHe,

Aral

W

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rsepoljg

P E R S ]

V

JA

A^yv

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CARMANIA

GEDROSIA

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AN

STATES FORMED FROM ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. 123

monarchies arose out of the ruins. After the rearrangement of
boundaries that followed the decisive battle of Ipsus (fought in
Phrygia 301 B.C.), these principal states had the outlines shown
by the accompanying map. Their rulers were Lysimachus, Seleu-
cus Nicator, Ptolemy, and Cassander, who had each assumed the
title of king. The great horn was broken ; and for it came up four
notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.^

Lysimachus held Thrace and the western part of Asia Minor ;
Seleucus Nicator, Syria and the countries eastward to the Indus ;
Ptolemy ruled Egypt ; and Cassander governed Macedonia, and
claimed authority over Greece.^

After barely mentioning the fate of the kingdom of Lysimachus,
we will trace very briefly the fortunes of the other three monarch-
ies until they were overthrown, one after the other, by the now
rapidly rising power of Rome.

Thrace, or the Kingdom of Lysimachns. — The kingdom of
Lysimachus soon disappeared. He was defeated by Seleucus in
the year 281 B.C., and his dominions were divided. The lands
in Asia Minor were joined to the Syrian kingdom, while Thrace
was absorbed by Macedonia.

Syria, or the Kingdom of the Seleucidae (312-65 b.c). —
This kingdom, during the two centuries and more of its existence,
played an important part in the civil history of the world. Under
its first king it comprised nominally almost all the countries of
Asia conquered by Alexander, thus stretching from the Hellespont
to the Indus; but in reality the monarchy embraced only Asia
Minor, Syria, and the old Assyria and Babylonia. Its rulers
were called Seleucidae, from the founder of the kingdom, Seleucus
Nicator.

Seleucus Nicator (312-280 b.c), besides being a ruler of
unusual ability, was a most liberal patron of learning and art. He
is declared to have been " the greatest founder of cities that ever

1 Dan. viii. 8.

2 Cassander never secured complete control of Greece, hence this country
is not included in his domains as these appear upon the map.

124 SYRIA.

lived." Throughout his dominions he founded a vast number,
some of which endured for many centuries, and were known far
and wide as centres of trade and Hellenistic civilization.

Upon the Tigris, as a rival to Babylon, he built Seleucia, which
grew rapidly into a capital of six hundred thousand inhabitants.
In its customs, manners, and government, it was essentially a
Greek city transplanted from Europe. As Seleucia rose, Babylon
sank into obscurity, and soon disappeared from history. Six other
cities in different parts of his empire bore the name Seleucia, after
himself; sixteen he called Antioch, in honor of his father; five he
named Laodicea, for his mother; still others bore the name
Apamea, in honor of one of his wives. Antioch, on the Orontes,
in Northern Syria, became, after Seleucia on the Tigris, the capital
of the kingdom, and obtained an influence and renown as a centre
of population and trade which have given its name a sure place in
history.^

This colonization of Western Asia by Greeks was, as has already
been remarked, one of the most noteworthy results of the Grseco-
Macedonian conquest. The founding of all these cities, however,
as the historian Ranke observes, "must not be reckoned solely
to the credit of Seleucus and Alexander. Their origin was
closely connected with the main tendencies of Greek coloniza-
tion. The Greeks had struggled long and often to penetrate into
Asia, but so long as the Persian empire remained supreme they
were energetically repulsed, and it was only as mercenaries
that they found admittance. This bar was now removed.
Released from all restrictions and attracted by the revolution
in politics, the Greeks now streamed into Asia Minor, Syria, and
Egypt."

The successors of Seleucus Nicator led the kingdom through
checkered fortunes. On difl"erent sides provinces fell away and

1 Antioch still remains; but most of the other cities are gone, with scarcely
a trace left of their former existence. Thus the site of the great capital Seleu-
cia, once the rival of Babylon, is now marked by just a few mounds and heaps
of rubbish.

STATES FORMED FROM ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. 125

became independent states.^ Antiochus III. (223-187 b.c), called
" the Great," raised the kingdom for a short time into great prom-
inence ; but attempting to make conquests in Europe, and further
giving asylum to the Carthaginian general Hannibal, he incurred
the fatal hostility of Rome. Quickly driven by the Roman legions
across the Hellespont, he was hopelessly defeated at the battle of
Magnesia (190 B.C.), and a large part of Asia Minor fell into the
hands of the Romans, who gave the most of it to their friend and
ally Eumenes H., king of Pergamus (see note below). After the
battle of Magnesia the Syrian kingdom was of very little impor-
tance in the world's affairs.

Antiochus IV., Epiphanes (176-164 B.C.), by the pillage and
desecration of the temple at Jerusalem, drove the Jews to success-
ful revolt, under the lead of the heroic family of the Maccabees.
Others kept the kingdom in constant contention with the states of
Asia Minor on the west, with the Bactrians and Parthians on the
east, and with Egypt on the south. At last, brought again into
collision with Rome, the country was overrun by Pompey the
Great, and became a part of the Roman Republic, 63 e.g.

1 The most important of these were the following : —

1. Pergamus. — This was a state in Western Asia Minor, which became
independent upon the death of Seleucus Nicator (280 B.C.). Favored by the
Romans, it gradually grew into a powerful kingdom, which at the time of
Eumenes II. (197-159 n.c.) embraced a considerable part of Asia Minor. Its
capital, also called Pergamus, became a most noted centre of Greek learning
and civilization, and through its great library and university gained the renown
of being, next to Alexandria in Egypt, the greatest city of the Hellenistic
world. In 133 B.C. Attalus III., after killing all his heirs, ended a life which
was a perfect tissue of follies by bequeathing his kingdom to the Roman
people, who immediately took steps to secure the prize, and made it into a
province under the name of Asia.

2. Parthia. — Parthia was a powerful Turanian state that grew up east of
the Euphrates, in the lands that formed the heart and centre of the old Persian
Empire (from about 255 B.C. to 226 A.D.). Its kings were at first formidable
enemies of the rulers of Syria, and later of the Romans, whom they never
allowed to make any considerable conquest beyond the Euphrates.

126 KINGDOM OF THE PTOLEMIES IN EGYPT.

Kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt (323-30 b.c.)- — The
Grseco-Egyptian empire of the Ptolemies was by far the most
important, in its influence upon the civihzation of the world,
of all the kingdoms that owed their origin to the conquests of
Alexander. The founder of the house and dynasty was Ptolemy I.,
surnamed Soter^ (323-283 B.C.). His descendants ruled in Egypt
for nearly three centuries, a most important period in the intellec-
tual life of the world. Ptolemy was a general under Alexander,
and seemed to possess much of his ability and restless energy,
with a happy freedom from his great commander's faults.

Upon the partition of the empire of Alexander, Ptolemy received
Egypt, with parts of Arabia and Libya. To these he added by
conquest Coele-Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Cyrene, and Cyprus.
Following the usage of the time, he transported one hundred
thousand Jews from Jerusalem to Alexandria, attached them to his
person and policies by wise and conciliatory measures, and thus
effected at this great capital of the Nile that blending of the races
of the East and the West which was the dream of Alexander.

The possession of the forests of Mount Lebanon, and the com-
mand of the artisans of Phoenicia, enabled Ptolemy to realize his
plans of making Egypt a naval power, and the emporium of the
carrying trade between Asia and Europe. Alexandria became the
great depot of exchange for the productions of the world. At the
entrance of the harbor stood the Pharos, or light-house, — the first
structure of its kind, — which Ptolemy built to guide the fleets of
the world to his capital. This edifice was reckoned one of the
Seven Wonders.

But it was not alone the exchange of material products that was
comprehended in Ptolemy's scheme. His aim was to make his
capital the intellectual centre of the world — the place where the
arts, sciences, hteratures, and even the religions, of the world should
meet and mingle. He founded the famous Museum, a sort of col-
lege, which became the " University of the East," and estabhshed

^ That is, deliverer, a name given him by the Rhodians in gratitude for
mihtary aid that he rendered them.

STATES FORMED FROM ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. 127

the renowned Alexandrian Library. Poets, artists, philosophers,
and teachers in all departments of learning were encouraged to
settle in Alexandria by the conferring of immunities and privileges,
and by gifts and munificent patronage. His court embraced the
learning and genius of the age.

Ptolemy Philadelphus (283-247 B.C.) followed closely in the
footsteps of his father, carrying out, as far as possible, the plans
and policies of the preceding reign. To secure Egypt's com-
mercial supremacy, the old Pharaonic canal uniting the Nile and
the Red Sea was restored, and roads were constructed to facilitate
the transportation of merchandise f'-om the ports on that sea to the
river. Philadelphus added largely to the royal library, and ex-
tended to scholars the same liberal patronage that his father had
before him.

The surname Philadelphus (brother-lover) was given this Ptol-
emy on account of his tender devotion to his wife Arsinoe, who
was also his sister. This usage of intermarriage among the mem-
bers of the royal family — a usage in which the Ptolemies followed
what was a custom of the ancient Pharaohs — was one of the
causes of the contentions and calamities which at last overwhelmed
the house with woes and infamy.

Ptolemy III. (247-222 B.C.) was called by the Egyptians Euer-
getes (benefactor), because in one of his wars — a war against the
king of Syria, which led him beyond the Euphrates — he recap-
tured and placed again in their temples some statues of the Egyp-
tian gods which the Persian conqueror Cambyses and the Assyrian
Sargon had borne away as trophies. He was possessed of great
military genius, and under him the dominions of the Ptolemies
touched their widest limits ; while the capital Alexandria reached
the culminating point in her fame as the centre of Greek civiliza-
tion.

Altogether the Ptolemies reigned in Egypt almost exactly three
centuries (323-30 B.C.). Those rulers who held the throne for the
last two hundred years were, with few exceptions, a succession of
monsters, such as even Rome in her worst days could scarcely

128 MACEDONIA AND GREECE.

equal. These monarchs plunged into the most despicable ex-
cesses, and were guilty of every folly and cruelty. The usage of
intermarriage, already mentioned, led to endless family quarrels,
which resulted in fratricide, matricide, and all the dark deeds
included in the calendar of royal crime. The story of the re-
nowned Cleopatra, the last of the house of the Ptolemies, will be
told in connection with Roman history, to which it properly
belongs.

Macedonia and Greece. — From the time of the subjection of
Greece by Philip and Alexander to the absorption of Macedonia
into the growing dominions of Rome, the Greek cities of the
peninsula were very much under the control or influence of the
Macedonian kings. But the Greeks were never made for royal
subjects, and consequently they were in a state of chronic revolt
against this foreign authority.

Thus, no sooner had they heard of the death of Alexander than
several of the Grecian states arose against the Macedonian general
Antipater, and carried on with him what is known as the Lamian
War^ (323-321 B.C.). The struggle ended disastrously for the
Greeks, and Demosthenes, who had been the soul of the move-
ment, was forced to flee from Athens. He took refuge upon an
island just off the coast of the Peloponnesus ; but being still hunted
by Antipater, he put an end to his own life by means of poison.

The next^ matter of moment in the history of Macedonia was an
invasion of the Gauls (Celtic tribes from Scythia), under the lead
of Brennus (279 B.C.). Both Macedonia and Greece suffered
terribly from these savage marauders. Being driven from Europe,
the barbarians finally settled in Asia Minor, and there gave name
to the province of Galatia.

Macedonia now comes in contact with a new enemy — the great
military republic of the West. For lending aid to Carthage in the
second Punic War, she incurred the anger of Rome, which resulted,
after much intrigue and hard fighting, in the country's being brought

1 From the city of Lamia in Thessaly, where Antipater was besieged by the
Greeks.

STATES FORMED FROM ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. 129

into subjection to the Italian power. In the year 146 B.C. it was
erected into a Roman province.

The political affairs of Greece proper during the period we are
considering were chiefly comprehended in the fortunes of two
confederacies, or leagues, one of which, called the Achaean League,
embraced finally all the states of the Peloponnesus,^ as well as
some cities outside its limits ; while the other, known as the ^to-
lian League, comprised many of the states north of the Corinthian
Gulf.2

United, these two confederacies might have maintained the
political independence of Greece ; but that spirit of dissension
which we have seen to be the bane of the Hellenic peoples led
them to become, in the hands of intriguing Rome, weapons first
for crushing Macedonia, " and then for grinding each other to
pieces.

Soon after the conquest of Macedonia, the ^tolians were made
tributary to Rome. At the same time, a thousand of the leading
citizens of the cities of the Achaean League were, on the pretext
of their conspiring against Rome, transported to Italy, and for
seventeen years kept as political prisoners in the different cities of
Etruria. At the end of that time the surviving exiles were allowed
to return home, the perfidious Romans foreseeing and hoping that
their desire for revenge would betray them into some violent act
which would afford Rome a pretext for invading and confiscating
their territory. All fell out as anticipated. The exiles were no
sooner returned to their native land than they stirred up their
countrymen to revolt against Rome. Corinth, which, since the
Peloponnesian War had ruined Athens, was the most splendid city

^ Sparta was not a member of the League at first, but its jealous and bitter
enemy. The Spartan king Cleomenes waged with the confederated states
what is Ifnown as the Cleomenic War (224-221 B.C.). The League sought
and obtained aid of Macedonia, and Sparta was defeated.

*For a study of •these confederations consult Freeman's valuable work entitled
History of Federal Constitutions.

130 REVIEW.

of all Greece, was taken by the Roman army and laid in ashes
(146 B.C.). This was the last act in the long and varied drama of
the political life of ancient Greece. Henceforth it constituted
simply a portion of the Roman Empire.

Review. — We have now traced the political fortunes of the
Hellenic race through about seven centuries of authentic history.
Starting with the institutions of the primitive Greek communities,
we have followed the early growth of the leading Grecian states,
and have watched their memorable struggle with the power of the
Persian kings ; we have noticed the brilliant era of Athenian
supremacy which followed that contest ; we have seen the terri-
ble calamities finally brought by the mutual jealousies of the two
rival states of Athens and Sparta, not only upon themselves, but
upon all Hellas ; then, after brief periods of Spartan and Theban
supremacy, we have seen Macedonia assume the leadership of
the Greek race, unite half the world in a single kingdom under
an Alexander, and spread Hellenic ideas, institutions, and lan-
guage from Italy to the regions beyond the Indus ; we have also
seen this enormous Macedonian empire, through the rivalries of
ambitious generals and through lack of that capacity to unite for
political ends which was the fatal defect of the Greek character,
torn into pieces, and these fragments, after more or less varied
political fortunes, seized upon one after another by the rapacity of
Rome.

In succeeding chapters it will be our pleasanter task to trace the
more brilliant and worthy fortunes of the artistic and intellectual
life of Hellas : to portray, though necessarily in scanty oudine, the
achievements of that wonderful genius which enabled her, " cap-
tured, to lead captive her captor."

STATES FORMED FROM ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. 131

RULERS OF THE KINGDOM OF THE SELEUCID^.

B.C

Seleucus I., Nicator, founder of the kingdom 312-281

Antiochus I., Soter 281-261

Antiochus H., Theos 261—246

Seleucus W 246-226

Seleucus HI., Ceraunus 226-223

Antiochus HI., the Great 223-187

Seleucus IV., Philopator 187-176

Antiochus IV., Epiphanes (revolt of the Jews under Judas Macca-

baeus) 176-164

Antiochus V., Eupator 164-162

Several obscure names 162-69

Antiochus VIII., last of the Seleucidae 69-65

RULERS OF THE GR^CO-EGYPTIAN KINGDOM OF THE
PTOLEMIES.

B.C.

Ptolemy I., Soter 323-283

Ptolemy II., Philadelphus 283-247

Ptolemy III., Euergetes 247-222

Ptolemy IV 222-205

Ptolemy V 205-181

Ptolemy VI 181-146

Several obscure names 146-51

Cleopatra, last of the line 51-30

Egypt becomes a part of the Roman Empire 30

132 THE GREEK SENSE OF BEAUTY,

CHAPTER X.

.GREEK ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE, AND PAINTING.
I. Introductory.

The Greek Sense of Beauty. — The Greeks were artists by
nature. They possessed an organization that was most exquisitely
sensitive to impressions of the beautiful. As it has been expressed,
" ugUness gave them pain like a blow." Everything they made,
from the shrines for their gods to the meanest utensils of domestic
use, was beautiful. Beauty they placed next to holiness ; indeed,
they almost or quite made beauty and moral right the same thing.
It is said that it was noted by the Greeks as something strange and
exceptional that Socrates was good, notwithstanding he was ugly
in feature.

The first maxim in Greek art was the same as that which formed
the first principle in Greek morality — " Nothing in excess." The
Greek eye was offended at any exaggeration of parts, at any lack
of symmetry or proportion in an object. The proportions of the
Greek temple are perfect. Any deviations from the measurements
or canons of the Greek artists are found to be departures from the
ideal.

Clearness of outline was another requirement of Greek taste.
The artistic Greek had a positive dislike of all vagueness or indis-
tinctness of form. Contrast the clear-cut lines of a Greek temple
with the vague, ever-vanishing lines of a Mediaeval Gothic cathe-
dral.

It is possible that Nature herself taught the Greeks these first
principles of their art. Nature in Greece never goes to extremes.
The Grecian mountains and islands are never over-large. The
climate is never excessively cold nor oppressively hot. And

GREEK ARCHITECTURE. ETC.

133

Nature here seems to abhor vagueness. The singular transpar-
ency of the atmosphere, especially that of Attica, lends a remark-
able clearness of outline to every object. The Parthenon in its
clear-cut features seems modelled after the hills that lie with such
absolute clearness of form against the Attic sky.

11. Architecture.

Felasgian Architecture. — The term Pelasgian is applied to
various structures of massive masonry — walls, tombs, and subter-
ranean aqueducts — found in different parts of Greece, Italy, and
Asia Minor. The origin -of these works was a mystery to the
earliest Hellenes, who ascribed them to the giant Cyclops ; hence
the name Cyclopean that also attaches to them.

These works exhibit three well-defined stages of development.
In the earliest and rudest structures the stones are gigantic in size
and untouched by the chisel ; in the next oldest the stones are

"K ■'-

"^/"

PELASGIAN MASONRY.

worked into irregular polygonal blocks; while in the latest the
blocks are cut into rectangular shapes and laid in regular courses.
The walls of the old citadels or castles of several Grecian cities
exhibit specimens of this primitive architecture. The celebrated
so-called Treasury of Atreus, a subterranean vaulted structure at

134

FIRST GRECIAN TEMPLES.

Mycenae, is a noted example of the latest form of Pelasgian art.
The best specimen of the oldest form is found at Tiryns, near
Mycenae.

First Grecian Temples. — In the earliest times the Greeks had
no temples, save the forests. The statues of the gods were first
placed beneath the shelter of a tree, or within its hollow trunk.
After a time, a building rudely constructed of the trunks of trees
and shaped like the habitations of men, marked the first step in
advance. Then stone took the place of the wooden frame. With
the introduction of a durable material, the artist was encouraged
to expend more labor and care upon his work. Thus architecture
began to make rapid strides, and by the century following the age
of Solon at Athens there were many beautiful temples in different
parts of the Hellenic world.

Orders of Architecture. — Before speaking of the most noted
temples of Hellas, we must first name the three styles, or orders.

DORIC CAPITAL.

IONIC CAPITAL.

of Grecian architecture. These are the Doric, the Ionic, and the
Corinthian. They are distinguished from one another chiefly by
differences in the proportions and ornamentation of the column.

The Doric column is without a base, and has a simple and mas-
sive capital. The prototype of this order may be seen at Beni-
Hassan, in Egypt. At first the Doric temples of the Greeks were
almost as massive as the Egyptian temples, but later they became
more refined.

GREEK ARCHITECTURE, ETC.

135

The Ionic column is characterized by the spiral volutes of the
capital. This form was borrowed from the Assyrians, and was
principally employed by the Greeks of Ionia, whence its name.

The Corinthian order is distinguished by its rich capital, formed
of acanthus leaves. This type is made up of Egyptian, Assyrian,
and Grecian elements. The bell shape of the capital is in imita-
tion of the Egyptian style. The addition of the acanthus leaves is
said to have been suggested to the artist Callimachus by the pretty

effect of a basket surrounded
by the leaves of an acanthus
plant, upon which it had ac-
cidentally fallen. This order
was not much employed in
Greece before the time of
Alexander the Great.

The entire structure was
made to harmonize with its
supporting columns. The
general characteristics of the
several orders are well por-
trayed by the terms we use
when we speak of the " stem "
Doric, the "graceful" Ionic,
and the "ornate " Corinthian.
Temple of Diana at Ephesns. — The temple of Diana at Ephe-
sus was one of the oldest, as well as one of the most famous, of the
sacred edifices of the Greeks. The original structure was com-
menced about the beginning of the sixth century B.C., and, accord-
ing to Pliny, was one hundred and twenty years in process of
building. Croesus gave liberally of his wealth to ornament the
shrine. It was known far and wide as one of the Seven Wonders
of the Worid.

In the year 356 B.C., on the same night, it is said, that Alexan-
der was born, an ambitious youth, named Herostratus, fired the
building, simply to immortalize his name. The roof of the struc-

CORINTHIAN CAPITAL.

TEMPLE OF DIANA AT EPHESUS.

ture was of cedar, and this, probably, was the only part destroyed.
It was restored with even greater splendor than at first. Alexander
coveted the honor of rebuilding the temple, and proposed to the
Ephesians to do so, provided that he be allowed to inscribe his
name upon it. The Ephesians gracefully declined the proposal by
replying that it was not right for one deity to erect a temple to
another.^ Alexander was obliged to content himself with placing
within the shrine his own portrait by Apelles — a piece of work
which cost 130,000. The value of the gifts to the temple was
beyond all calculation : kings and states vied with one another in
splendid donations. Painters and sculptors were eager to have
their masterpieces assigned a place within its walls, so that it
became a great national gallery of paintings and statuary.

So inviolable was the sanctity of the temple that at all times, and
especially in times of tumult and danger, property and treasures
were carried to it as a safe repository.^ But the riches of the
sanctuary proved too great a temptation to the Roman emperor

1 Alexander, it appears, made a similar offer to the priests of the temple of
Athena Polias at Priene, a city of Cairia, for a tablet has been found upon
which Alexander's name is engraved as dedicator. The slab may be seen in
the British Museum.

2 The Grecian temples were, in a certain sense, banks of deposit. They con-
tained special chambers or vaults for the safe-keeping of valuables. The
heaps of gold and silver relics discovered by Di Cesnola at Sunium, in the
island of Cyprus, were found in the secret subterranean vaults of a great tem-
ple. The priests often loaned out on interest the money deposited with them,
the revenue from this source being added to that from the leased lands of the
temple and from the tithes of war booty, to meet the expenses of the services
of the shrine. We may liken the wealth of the ancient temples to that of the
Mediaeval churches. "The gods were the wealthiest capitalists." Usually
the temple property in Greece was managed solely by the priests; Let the
treasure of the? Parthenon at Athens formed an exception to this rule. The
treasure here belonged to the State, and was controlled and disposed of by the
vote of the people. Even the personal property of the goddess, the gold dra-
pery of the statue (see p. 145), which was worth about $600,000, could be
used in case of great need, but it must be replaced in due time, wiih a fair
interest.

GREEK ARCHITECTURE, ETC. 137

Nero. He risked incurring the anger of the great Diana, and
robbed the temple of many statues and a vast amount of gold.
Later (in 262 a.d.), the barbarian Goths enriched themselves with
the spoils of the shrine. The temple itself fared but little better
than the treasures it guarded. The Goths left it a ruin ; and long
after, some of the celebrated jasper columns were, by order of the
emperor Justinian, carried to Byzantium, and there at this day
uphold the dome of St. Sophia, once the most noted church, now
the most famous mosque, in all the East. Other columns from this
ruin were taken to Italy and built into Christian churches there.^

The Delphian Temple. — The first temple erected at Delphi
over the spot whence issued the mysterious vapors was a rude
wooden structure. In the year 548 B.C., the temple then standing
was destroyed by fire. All the cities and states of Hellas con-
tributed to its rebuilding. Even the king of Egypt, Amasis, sent
a munificent gift. More than half a million of dollars was col-
lected ; for the temple was to exceed in magnificence anything
the world had yet seen. It will be recalled that the Athenian
Alcmaeonidae were the contractors who undertook the rebuilding
of the shrine (see p. 55).

The structure was impressive both in its colossal size and the
massive simplicity that characterizes the Doric style of architec-
ture. It was crowded with the spoils of many battle-fields, with
the rich gifts of kings, and with rare works of art. Like the temple
at Ephesus, the Delphian shrine, after remaining for many years
secure, through the awe and reverence which its oracle inspired,
suffered frequent spoliation. The greed of conquerors overcame
all religious scruples. The Phocians robbed the temple of a treas-
ure equivalent, it is estimated, to more than $ 10,000,000 with us
(see p. 109); and Nero plundered it of five hundred bronze
images. But Constantine (emperor of Rome 306-337 a.d., and
founder of Constantinople) was the Nebuchadnezzar who bore ofl

^The site of the temple was for many centuries lost; but in 1871, Mr. Wood,
an excavator, uncovered portions of its ancient pavement, and brought to light
fragments of sculpture, which may now be seen in the British Museum.

138

THE ATHENIAN ACROPOLIS.

the sacred vessels and many statues as trophies to his new capital
then rising on the Hellespont.

The Athenian Acropolis and the Parthenon. — In the history
of art there is no other spot in the world possessed of such interest
as the flat-topped rock, already described, which constituted the
Athenian Acropolis. We have seen that in early times the emi-
nence was used as a stronghold. But by the fifth century B.C. the
city had slipped down upon the plain, and the summit of the rock
was consecrated to the temples and the worship of the deities, and
came to be called " the city of the gods." During the period of
Athenian supremacy, especially in the Periclean Age, Hellenic

TmiiMimJffnirifiTriiwiiiririjt^^

ATHENIAN YOUTH IN PROCESSION. (From the Frieze of the Parthenon.)

genius and piety adorned this spot with temples and statues that
all the world has pronounced to be faultless specimens of beauty
and taste.

The most celebrated of the buildings upon the Acropolis was the
Parthenon, the " Residence of the virgin-goddess Athena." This
is considered the finest specimen of Greek architecture. It was
designed by the architect Ictinus, but the sculptures that adorned
it were the work of the celebrated Phidias.^ It was built in the

^ The subject of the wonderful frieze running round the temple was the pro-
cession which formed the most important feature of the Athenian festival
known as the Greater Panathenaea, which was celebrated every four years in

139

140

THE MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS.

Doric order, of marble from the neighboring Pentelicus. After
standing for more than two thousand years, and having served
successively as a Pagan temple, a Christian church, and a Moham-
medan mosque, it finally was made to serve as a Turkish powder-
magazine, in a war with the Venetians, in 1687. During the
progress of this contest a bomb fired the magazine, and more than
half of this masterpiece of ancient art was shivered into fragments.
The front is still quite perfect, and is the most prominent feature
of the Acropolis at the present time.

THE PARTHENON (present condition).

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. — This structure was another
of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was a monumental tomb
designed to preserve the memory of Mausolus, king of Caria, who
died 352 B.C. Its erection was prompted by the love and grief of
his wife Artemisia. The combined genius of the most noted artists
of the age, among whom was the renowned sculptor Scopas, exe-

honor of the patron-goddess of Athens, The larger part of the frieze is now
in the British Museum, the Parthenon having been despoiled of its coronal of
sculptures by Lord Elgin. Read Lord Byron's The Curse of Minerva. To
the poet, Lord Elgin's act appeared worse than vandalism.

142

THEATRES AND OTHER STRUCTURES.

cuted the wish of the queen. From a base about one hundred
feet square the monument rose
to a height of one hundred and
forty feet. Its sides were deco-
rated with a multitude of statues
and figures in reUef ; while sur-
mounting the monument was
the statue of Mausolus, standing
in a marble chariot drawn by
four horses.

The chief remains of the
Mausoleum are numerous sculpt-
ures dug up on the site, and
now preserved in the British
Museum. These assure us that
the admiration of the ancients
was not accorded to this work
without sufficient reason. It is
the traditions of this beautiful
structure that have given the
world a name for all magnificent
monuments raised to perpetuate
the memory of the dead.

Theatres and Other Struc-
tures. — The Greek theatre was
semi-circular in form, and open
to the sky, as shown in the
accompanying cut. The struc-
ture comprised three divisions :
first, the semi-circle of seats for
the spectators ; second, the or-
chestra, or dancing-place for the
chorus, which embraced the
space between the lower range '"°''^'^ monument of LYSiCRATES.
of seats and the stage ; and third, the stage, a narrow platform
for the actors.

GREEK ARCHITECTURE, ETC. 143

The most noted of Greek theatres was the Theatre of Dionysus
at Athens, which was the model of all the others. It was partly
cut in the rock on the southeastern slope of the Acropolis, the
Greeks in the construction of their theatres generally taking advan-
tage of a hillside. There were about one hundred rows of seats,
the lowest one, bordering the orchestra, consisting of sixty-seven
marble arm-chairs. These were brought to light by excavations
made in the year 1862. The structure would hold thirty thousand
spectators.

Among commemorative edifices raised in honor of the living,
the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, at Athens, known also as
the Lantern of Diogenes, is regarded as the most beautiful. The
structure is only thirty-four feet high. It is of the Corinthian
order of architecture, and was intended to commemorate the
victory won in 334 B.C. by Lysicrates, the leader (Choragus) of a
chorus (see p. 201).

There are no specimens preserved to us of the domestic or
palatial architecture of the Greeks.

III. Sculpture and Painting.

Progress in Sculpture : Influence of the Gymnastic Art. — The

subjects of the Grecian artists were usually taken from the sacred
myths and legends, ^^'ood was the material first employed.
About the eighth century B.C. bronze and marble were generally
substituted for the less durable material. With this change
sculpture began to make rapid progress.

Another circumstance aided the development of the art. It
became usual to commemorate victories at the national games
by statues of the victor. The grounds about the temple at Olym-
pia became crowded with " a band of chosen youth in imperishable
forms." Now, in representing the figures of the gods, it was
thought, if not impious, at least presumptuous, to change a single
line or lineament of the conventional form ; and thus a certain

144

PROGRESS IN SCULPTURE.

Egyptian rigidity was imparted to all the productions of the
artist. Any material change subjected him to the charge of sacri-
lege. But in the representation of the forms of mere men, the
sculptor was bound by no conventionalism, being perfectly free to
exercise his skill and genius in
handling his subject. Progress
and improvement now became
possible.

But what exerted the most
positive influence upon Greek
sculpture was the gymnastic art.
The exercises of the gymnasium
and the contests of the sacred
games afforded the artist unri-
valled opportunities for the study
of the human form. "The whole
race," as Symonds says, "lived
out its sculpture and its painting,
rehearsed, as it were, the great
works of Phidias and Polygnotus,
in physical exercises, before it
learned to express itself in marble
or in color."

As the sacred buildings in-
creased in number and costliness,
the services of the artist were
called into requisition for their "^

adornment. At first the temple held only the statue of the god ; but
after a time it became, as we have already seen, a sort of national
museum — a repository of the artistic treasures of the state. The
entablature, the pediments, the intercolumniations of the building,
and every niche of the interior of the shrine, as well as the sur-
rounding grounds and groves, were peopled with statues and
groups of figures, executed by the most renowned artists, and
representing the national deities, the legendary heroes, victors at

PITCHING THE DISCUS, OR QUOIT.
(Discobolus.)

GREEK ARCHITECTURE, ETC.

145

the public games, or incidents in the life of the state in which
piety saw the special interposition of the god in whose honor the

shrine had been reared.

Phidias. — Among all the great
sculptors of antiquity, Phidias stands
pre-eminent. He was an Athenian,
and was bom about 488 B.C. He
delighted in the beautiful myths and .
legends of the Heroic Age, and from
these he drew subjects for his art.
Phidias being an architect as well
as sculptor, his patron Pericles gave
into his hands the superintendence
of those magnificent buildings with
which he persuaded the Athenians
to adorn their city. It was his gen-
ius that created the wonderful fig-
ures of the pediments and the
frieze of the Parthenon.

The most celebrated of his co-
lossal sculptures were the statue of
Athena within the Parthenon, and
that of Olympian Zeus in the temple
at Olympia. The statue of Athena
was of gigantic size, being about
forty feet in height, and was con-
structed of ivory and gold, the
hair, weapons, and drapery being
of the latter material. One hand of
the goddess rested upon a richly-
carved shield, while the other held
aloft an ivory statue of Victory, it-
self a masterpiece. On her feet

ATHENA PARTHENOS. (After a statue
found at Athens in 1880, which is sup-
posed to be a copy of the cofossal statue ^verC goldcU Sandals.
of Athena by Phidias, described in the /. ^i •

^g^^j The statue of Olympian

Zeus

146

PHIDIAS.

was also of ivory and gold. It was sixty feet high, and repre-
sented the god seated on his throne. The hair, beard, and drapery
were of gold. The eyes were brilliant stones. Gems of great
value decked the throne, and figures of exquisite design were
sculptured on the golden robe. The colossal proportions of this
wonderful work, as well as the lofty yet benign aspect of the coun-
tenance, harmonized well with the popular conception of the
majesty and grace of the "father of gods and men." It was
thought a great misfortune to die without having seen the Olym-
pian Zeus.^ The statue was in existence for eight hundred years,
being finally destroyed by fire in the fifth century a.d.

Phidias also executed other
works in both bronze and marble.
He met an unworthy fate. First
he was accused of having stolen
a part of the gold put in his hands
for the statue of Athena in the
Parthenon. This charge was dis-
proved by the golden drapery
being taken from the statue and
weighed. Then he was prose-
cuted on another charge. Upon
the famous shield at the feet of head of the olympian zeus by
the statue of Athena in the Par- phidias.

1 " Phidias avowed that he took his idea from the representation which
Homer gives in the first book of the Iliad in the passage thus translated
by Pope : —

' He spake, and awful bends his sable brow.
Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod,
The stamp of fate and sanction of the god.
High heaven with reverence the dread signal took,
And all Olympus to the centre shook.' "

Bulfinch's Age of Fable, p. 404.

When Phidias had finished his work, so tradition tells, he prayed Zeus to
give a token if the statue pleased him. Straightway a thunderbolt from heaven
fell upon the temple floor, by which sigu Phidias knew that his work was
accepted.

GREEK ARCHITECTURE, ETC. 147

thenon, among the figures in the representation of a battle between
the Athenians and the Amazons, Phidias introduced a portrait of
himself and also one of his patron Pericles. That of himself was
the figure of a " bald old man " just in the act of hurling a huge
rock. The enemies of the artist, prompted by jealousy, caused
him to be prosecuted for his presumption, which was considered
an act of sacrilege. He died in prison (432 B.C.).

Polycletus. — At the same time that Phidias was executing his
ideal representations of the gods, Polycletus the elder, whose home
was at Argos, was producing his renowned bronze statues of ath-
letes. Among his pieces was one representing a spear-bearer,
which was regarded as so perfect as to be known as " the Rule."

Polycletus also executed some statues of gods and heroes, among
which his "Hera" is celebrated; in this field, however, his fame
was eclipsed by that of Phidias.

Praxiteles. — This artist, after Polycletus, stands next to Phid-
ias as one of the most eminent of Greek sculptors. His works
were executed during the fourth century B.C. Among his chief
pieces may be mentioned the " Cnidian x^phrodite," the " Satyr,"
" Eros," and " Hermes." The first of these, which stood in the
Temple of Aphrodite at Cnidus, was regarded by the ancients as
the most perfect embodiment of the goddess of beauty. Long
pilgrimages were made from distant countries to Cnidus for the
sake of looking upon the matchless statue. Many copies were set
up in different cities. About two centuries ago, excavations at Rome
brought to light a beautiful statue, supposed to be a copy of the
original Cnidian Aphrodite, by Cleomenes, who lived during the
first or second century B.C. This is the so-called " Venus de*
Medici," copies of which are in all our homes. The name comes
from the circumstance of the statue having been kept for some
time after its discovery in the palace of the Medici at Rome.

To Praxiteles is also sometimes ascribed the celebrated group
representing the Niobe myth. (By some this work is attributed
to Scopas, one of the sculptors of the figures of the Mausoleum of
Halicamassus.) The original work, which was transported from

INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA.

(Reconstructed by G, Rehlendert)
14s

GREEK ARCHITECTURE, ETC. 149

Asia Minor to Rome probably about 35 b.c, has perished ; the
well-known group at Florence is a Roman copy.

Lysippus. — This artist, a native of Sicyon, is renowned for his
works in bronze. He flourished about the middle of the fourth
century b.c. His statues were in great demand. More than six
hundred pieces of his work were to be counted in the different
cities of Hellas. Many of these were of colossal size. Alexander
gave the artist many orders for statues of himself, and also of the
heroes that fell in his campaigns.

Chares and the Rhodian Colossus. — Lysippus, like all men of
great genius in any art or science, had many disciples and left
many imitators. The most noted of his pupils was Chares, who
gave the world the celebrated Colossus at Rhodes (about 280 B.C.).
This was another of the Seven Wonders of the World. Its height
was one hundred and seven feet, and a man could barely encircle
with his arms the thumb of the statue. The expense of its erec-
tion (about $ 500,000) was met by the sale of spoils obtained by
the Rhodians in war. After standing little more than half a cen-
tury, it was overthrown by an earthquake. For nine hundred
years the Colossus then lay, like a Homeric god, prone upon the
ground. Finally, the Arabs, having overrun this part of the Orient
(a.d. 672), appropriated the statue, and thriftily sold it to a Jew-
ish merchant. It is said that it required a train of nine hundred
camels to bear away the bronze.

This gigantic piece of statuary was not a solitary one at Rhodes ;
for that city, next after Athens, was the great art centre of the
Grecian world. Its streets and gardens and public edifices were
literally crowded with statues. Hundreds met the eye on every
hand. The island became the favorite resort of artists, and the
various schools there founded acquired a wide reno\vn. Very
many of the most prized works of Grecian art in our modem
museums were executed by members of these Rhodian schools.
The "Laocoon Group," found at Rome in 1506, and now in the
Museum of the Vatican, is generally thought to be the work of
three Rhodian sculptors — Agesander, Athenodorus, and Polydo-

150

GREEK PAINTING.

rus. The order for the work was probably given by the Roman
emperor Titus (a.d. 79-81), as the group adorned his palace on
one of the hills of Rome.

THE LAOCOON GROUP.

Greek Painting. — Although the Greek artists attained a high
degree of excellence in painting, still they never brought the art to
that perfection which they reached in sculpture. One reason for
this less perfect development of the art was that paintings were

GREEK ARCHITECTURE, ETC. 151

never, like statues, objects of adoration ; hence less attention was
directed to them.^

With the exception of antique vases and a few patches of mural
decoration, all specimens of Greek painting have perished. Not
a single work of any great painter of antiquity has survived the
accidents of time. Consequently our knowledge of Greek paint- ^
ing is derived chiefly from the descriptions of renowned works, by
the ancient writers, and their anecdotes of great painters. These
classical stories are always epigrams of criticism, and thus possess
a technical as well as literary and historical value. For this rea-
son, we shall repeat some of them.

Polygnotus. — Polygnotus (flourished 475-455 b.c.) has been
called the Prometheus of painting, because he was the first to give
fire and animation to the expression of the countenance. " In his
hand," it is affirmed, " the human features became for the first
time the mirror of the soul." Of a Polyxena,^ painted by this
great master, it was said that "she carried in her eyelids the
whole history of the Trojan War."

The Athenians conferred upon Polygnotus the rights of citizen-
ship, and he out of gratitude painted upon the walls of some of
their public buildings the grandest frescoes the world had ever
looked upon. The fall of Ilium and the battle of Marathon were
among the subjects he represented.

Zeoxis and Farrhasius. — These great artists lived and painted
about 400 B.C. A favorite and familiar story preserves their names
as companions, and commemorates their rival genius. Zeuxis,
such is the story, painted a cluster of grapes which so closely imi-
tated the real fruit that the birds pecked at them. His rival, for
his piece, painted a curtain. Zeuxis asked Parrhasius to draw
aside the veil and exhibit his pictiure. " I confess I am surpassed,"

*The influence of religion upon art is illustrated by the Italian Renaissance,
when painting entered, the service of the Church. See Myers' Medieval and
Modern History, pp. 345, 34^-

2 Polyxena was a daughter of the Trojan Priam, famous for her beauty and
sufferings. She was sacrificed as an atonement to the shades of Achilles.

^52 APELLES.

generously admitted Zeuxis to his rival. " I deceived birds, but
you have deceived the eyes of an experienced artist."

Zeuxis executed orders for paintings for sacred buildings in
Greece and Italy, for his fame was not confined to a single land.
In his latter years he refused all remuneration for his pieces,
esteeming them beyond price in money. A very improbable story
is told of his having " died with laughter at a picture of an old
woman which he himself had painted."

Apelles. — Apelles, who has been called the " Raphael of an-
tiquity," was the court-painter of Alexander the Great. He was
such a consummate master of the art of painting, and carried it to
such a state of perfection, that the ancient writers spoke of it as
the " art of Apelles." His most celebrated painting was a repre-
sentation of Aphrodite just at the moment the goddess is rising
from the sea-foam. Centuries after the death of Apelles this paint-
ing was carried off to Italy by the Roman conquerors, and for a
time adorned a temple at Rome, erected in honor of Julius Caesar.

Several well-worn stories illustrative of the estimation in which
he was held by his contemporaries are told of Apelles. Entering
one day the studio of the artist Protogenes, and finding him
absent, instead of leaving his name, he drew, with his own inim-
itable grace, a single line upon a canvas, and then withdrew.
When Protogenes returned, and his eye caught the line, he ex-
claimed that no hand but that of Apelles ever drew such a stroke.
But in attempting to imitate it, he perceived that he had himself
surpassed it ; and, with a natural pride in his success, he instructed
his servant, upon the return of the stranger, to direct his attention
to the line. Calling a second time, Apelles was shown what his
rival had done. Thereupon he drew a third line that far sur-
passed either of the other two. Upon beholding it, Protogenes
rushed forth into the city in search of Apelles, for whom he ever
after evinced the warmest friendship, combined with the greatest
admiration.

A second tale is. told respecting a contest between Apelles and
some rival artists, in which horses were the objects represented.

GREEK ARCHITECTURE, ETC. 153

Perceiving that the judges were unfriendly to him, and partial,
Apelles insisted that less prejudiced judges should pronounce upon
the merit of the respective pieces, demanding, at the same time,
that the paintings should be shown to some horses that were near.
When brought before the pictures of his rival, the horses exhibited
no concern ; but upon being shown the painting of Apelles, they
manifested by neighing and other intelligent signs their instant
recognition of the companions the great master had created.

Still another anecdote has given the world one of its best prov-
erbs. A cobbler criticised the shoe-latchet of one of the artist's
figures. Apelles, recognizing that what had caught the practised
eye of the man was a real defect, straightway amended it. Then
the cobbler ventured to offer some criticisms on one of the legs.
Thereupon Apelles sharply rebuked him for passing beyond his
province, by replying, "Cobbler, keep to your last."

In the hands of Apelles Greek painting attained its highest
excellence. After him the art declined, and no other really great
name appears.

Note. — Excavations carried on, with some intermissions, from 1878 to
1886, upon the Acropolis of the ancient Pergamus, in Asia Minor, resulted
in the discovery of a great Altar, and a large number of gigantic sculptures
in high relief, which decorated the four sides of the fovmdation of the struc-
ture. The subject of the representation was the Battle of the Giants against
the Gods. The Altar is supposed to have been built by King Eumenes II.
(197-159 B.C.). The sculptures are now to be seen in the Berlin Museum,
though they have not yet been placed in permanent position. Taken as a
whole they may, perhaps, in the series of Greek sculptural monuments remain-
ing to us, be given a place second to the Phidian sculptures of the Athenian
Parthenon. Consult Beschreibung der pergamenischen Bildwerke, official pub-
lication of the Berlin Museum,

154 EXCELLENCE OF GREEK LITERATURE.

CHAPTER XL

GREEK LITERATURE.
I. Introductory.

Excellence of Greek Literature. — In literature the Greeks far
surpassed every other people of antiquity. The degree of excel-
lence attained by them in poetry, in oratory, and in history has
scarcely been surpassed by any modern people or race. Here, as
in art, they are still the teachers of the world.

The Greeks as Literary Artists. — It was that -same exquisite
sense of fitness and proportion and beauty which made the Greeks
artists in marble that also made them artists in Language. " Ot
all the beautiful things which they created," says Professor Jebb,
" their own language was the most beautiful." This language they
wrought into epics and lyrics and dramas and histories and ora-
tions, as incomparable in form and beauty as their temples and
statues. The excellences of Greek literature — fitness, symmetry,
proportion, clearness of outline — are the same as those that char-
acterize Greek art.

Even the Greek philosophers arranged and expressed their
ideas and speculations with such regard to the rules of literary art,
that many of their productions are fairly entitled to a place in
literature proper. Especially is this true of the earlier Greek
philosophers, who wrote in hexameter verse, and of Plato, in
whose works the profoundest speculations are embodied in the
most perfect literary form. But as Greek philosophy, viewed as
a system of thought, had a development distinct from that of
Greek literature proper, we shall deal with it in a separate chapter,
contenting ourselves here with merely pointing out the unusually

GREEK LITERATURE. 155

close connection in ancient Greece between Philosophy and Liter-
ature.

Periods of Greek Literature. — Greek literature, for the time
covered by our history, is usually divided into three periods, as
follows : (i) The Period before 475 B.C. ; (2) The Attic or Golden
Age (475-300 B.C.); (3) The Alexandrian Age (300-146 B.C.).

The first period gave birth to epic and lyric poetry ; the second,
to history, oratory, and above all to dramatic literature ; while the
third period was one of decline, during which the productions of
the preceding epochs were worked over and commented upon, or
feebly imitated. Occasionally, however, a gleam of real genius
brings back for a moment the splendors of the departing day.

II. The Period before 475 b.c.

The Homeric Poems. — The earliest specimens of Greek poetry
are the so-called " Homeric poems," consisting of the Iliad and
the Odyssey. The subject of the Iliad is the " Wrath of Achilles,"
and the woes it brought upon the Greeks who pressed the siege of
Ilios or Troy. The Odyssey tells of the long wanderings of the
hero Odysseus (Ulysses) up and down over many seas while
seeking his native Ithaca, after the downfall of Ilios.

The first poem, which is by far the superior of the two, must be
pronounced " the masterpiece of Greek literature ; perhaps of
all literatures." Before being committed to writing, it had prob-
ably been preserved and transmitted orally for several generations.
It has been translated into all languages, and has been read with
an ever fresh interest by generation after generation for nearly
three thousand years. Alexander, it is told, slept with a copy
beneath his pillow, — a copy prepared especially for him by his
preceptor Aristode, and called the " casket edition," from the
jewelled box in which Alexander is said to have kept it. We
preserve it quite as sacredly in all our courses of classical study.

The age in which the poem was written has been called the
Childhood of the World. The work is characterized by the fresh-

15g THE HOMERIC POEMS.

ness and vitality of youth. It exerted an incalculable influence
upon the literary and religious life of the Hellenic race. It has
made warriors as well as poets, for many of its passages are instinct
with the martial spirit. It incited the military ambition of Alex-
ander, of Hannibal, and of Caesar ; it inspired Virgil, Dante, and
Milton. All epic writers have taken it as their model.

Date and Authorship of the Homeric Poems. — Until the rise
of modern German criticism, the Iliad and the Odyssey were almost

HOMER.

universally ascribed to a single bard named Homer, who was
believed to have lived about the rhiddle of the ninth or tenth cen-
tury B.C., one or two centuries after the events commemorated in
his poems. Though tradition represents many cities as contending
for the -honor of having been his birthplace, still he was generally
regarded as a native of Smyrna, in Asia Minor. He travelled
widely (so it was believed) , lost his sight, and then, as a wander-
ing minstrel, sang his immortal verses to admiring listeners in the
different cities of Hellas.

GREEK LITERATURE. 157

But at the close of the last century (in 1795) ^^ German
scholar Wolf, after a critical study of the two Homeric poems,
declared that they were not, either of them, the work of a single
poet, but that each was made up of a large number of earlier short
lays, or ballads. The work of uniting these separate pieces into the
Iliad and the Odyssey, he believed to have been performed under
the direction of the Tyrant Pisistratus (see p. 54).

Wolfs theory opened a great " Battle of the Books." Since his
day there has been no lull in the so-called " Homeric controversy."
The following are the pretty generally acknowledged results thus
far of the great debate : The Iliad and the Odyssey, as they stand
to-day, are not, either of them, the creation of a single poet. They
are mosaics ; that is, they are built up out of fragments of an
extensive ballad literature that grew up in an age preceding the
Homeric. The extent, variety, and beauty of this pre-Homeric
literature implies a very long period of Hellenic development lying
back of the age that produced the Homeric poems.

The Iliad is the older of the two poems. It is made up of two
epics, the "Wrath of Achilles" and the " Doom of Ilios," the
former of which is by far the more archaic. Each of these earlier
epics was itself made up of still earlier lays. The "Wrath of
Achilles," which forms the nucleus of the Iliad as we have it, may,
with very great probability, be ascribed to Homer, whom we may
believe to have been one, and that the most prominent, of a
brotherhood of bards, or rhapsodists, who flourished about 850 or
750 B.C.

The Odyssey is probably a century later than the Iliad. The
unity of the poem is greater than that of the Iliad, and it bears so
plainly the impression of a single great mind, that we may well
believe it to be essentially the work of a single bard, instead of a
band, or fraternity, of poets. But the theory of the single author-
ship of the Odyssey does not imply that the entire contents of the
poem were the creation of a single mind. Like the Iliad, as
already affirmed, it was made up of pre-existing lays, or epics,
welded together.

158 THE HES IODIC POEMS.

The Hesiodic Poems. — Hesiod, who lived a century or more
after the age that gave birth to the Homeric poems, was the poet
of nature and of real life, especially of peasant life, in the dim
transition age of Hellas. The Homeric bards sing of the deeds
of heroes, and of a far-away time when gods mingled with men.
Hesiod sings of common men, and of every-day, present duties.
His greatest poem, a didactic epic, is entitled Works and Days.
This is, in the main, a sort of farmer's calendar, in which the poet
points out to the husbandman the lucky and unlucky days for
doing certain kinds of work, gives him minute instructions re-
specting farm labor, descants upon justice, eulogizes industry,
and intersperses among all his practical lines homely maxims of
morality and beautiful descriptive passages of the changing seasons.
Virgil's Georgics was based upon the Works and Days.

Another work called the Theogony is also usually ascribed to
Hesiod. This poem has been well described as being " an author-
ized version of the genealogy of the Greek gods and heroes."

Lyric Poetry : Pindar. — As epic poetry, represented by the
Homeric and Hesiodic poems, was the characteristic production of
the earlier part of the first period of Greek Literature, so was lyric
poetry the most noteworthy product of the latter part of the
period.

The vEolian island of Lesbos was the hearth and home of the
earlier lyric poets. The songs of these Lesbian bards fairly glow
and quiver with ardent passion. Among the earliest of these
singers were Alcgeus and Sappho. No higher praise of Alcaeus is
needed than mention of the fact that the Roman poet Horace was
so pleased with his verses that he borrowed sometimes entire odes
of the Lesbian bard.

The poetess Sappho was exalted by the Greeks to a place next
to Homer. Plato calls her the Tenth Muse. " Of all the poets
of the world," writes Symonds, " of all the illustrious artists of
literature, Sappho is the one whose every word has a peculiar and
unmistakable perfume, a seal of absolute and inimitable grace."
Although her fame endures, her poetry, except some mere frag-
ments, has perished.

CREEK LITERATURE. l^d

Anacreon was a courtier at the time of the Greek tyrannies.
He was a native of Ionia, but passed much of his time at the court
of Polycrates of Samos, and at that of the Tyrant Hipparchus at
Athens. He seems to have enjoyed to the full the gay and easy
life of a courtier, and sung so voluptuously of love and wine and
festivity that the term "Anacreontic" has come to be used to
characterize all poetry over-redolent of these themes.

Simonides of Ceos (556-468 B.C.) hved during the Persian Wars.
He composed immortal couplets for the monuments of the fallen
heroes of Thermopylae and Salamis. These epigrams were burned
into the very soul of every person in Hellas.

But the greatest of the Greek lyric poets, and perhaps the
greatest of all lyric poets of every age and race, was Pindar (about
522-443 B.C.). He was born at Thebes, but spent most of his
time in the cities of Magna Graecia. Such was the reverence in
which his memory was held that when Alexander, one hundred
years after Pindar's time, levelled the city of Thebes to the ground
on account of a revolt, the house of the poet was spared, and left
standing amid the general ruin. The greater number of Pindar's
poems were inspired by the scenes of the national festivals. They
describe in lofty strains the splendors of the Olympian chariot-
races, or the glory of the victors at the Isthmian, the Nemean,
or the Pythian games.

Pindar insists strenuously upon virtue and self-culture. With
deep meaning, he says, "Become that which thou art"; that is,
be that which you are made to be.

III. The Attic or Golden Age (475-300 b.c).

Influences Favorable to a Great Literature. — The Golden Age
of Greek Literature followed the Persian Wars, and was, in a large
measure, produced by them. Every great literary outburst is the
result of a profound stirring of the depths of national life. All
Hellas had been profoundly moved by the tremendous struggle
for political existence. Athens especially had hoped all, risked

160 ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA.

all, achieved all. Her citizens now felt an unwonted exaltation
of life. Hence Athens naturally becomes the home and center
of the literary activity of the period.

The Attic Literature embraces almost every specimen of
composition, yet the Drama, History, and Oratory are its most
characteristic forms. Especially favorable were the influences of
the time for the production of great dramatic works. The two
conditions, " intense activity and an appreciative audience," with-
out which, it is asserted, a great drama cannot exist, met in the
age of Pericles. Hence the unrivalled excellence of the Attic
drama, the noblest production of the artistic genius of the Greeks.

The Greek Drama and Dramatists.

Origin of the Greek Drama. — The Greek drama, in both its
branches of tragedy and comedy, grew out of the songs and dances
instituted in honor of the god of wine — Dionysus.^

BACCHIC PROCESSION.

Tragedy (goat-song, possibly from the accompanying sacrifice
of a goat) sprang from the graver songs, and comedy (village-
song) from the lighter and more farcical ones. Gradually, recital
and dialogue were added, there being at first but a single speaker,
then two, and finally three, which last was the classical number.

^ The same as the Roman Bacchus.

GREEK LITERATURE. 161

Thespis (about 536 B.C.) is said to have introduced this idea of the
dialogue,, hence the term "Thespian" applied to the tragic drama.

Owing to its origin, the Greek drama always retained a religious
character, and further, presented two distinct features, the chorus
(the songs and dances) and the dialogue. At first, the chorus
was the all-important part ; but later, the dialogue became the
more prominent portion, the chorus, however, always remaining an
essential feature of the performance. Finally, in the golden age of
the Attic stage, the chorus dancers and singers were carefully
trained, at great expense, and the dialogue became the master-
piece of some great poet, — and then the Greek drama, the most
splendid creation of human genius, was complete.

The Subjects of the Tragfic Poets. — The tragic poets of Athens
drew the material of their plays chiefly from the myths and legends
of the heroic age, just as Shakespeare for many of his plays used
the legends of the semi-historical periods of his own country or
of other countries. These legendary tales they handled freely,
so changing, coloring, and moralizing them as to render them the
vehicle for the conveying of great ethical lessons, or of profound
philosophical ideas regarding the divine government of the world.
Indeed, the mission of the tragic poets was to harmonize the fuller
knowledge, the truer religious feeling of the age, with the ancient
traditions and myths, — to reveal the ethical truth which the old
stories of the gods and heroes contained, or which they might be
made to symbolize.

The Leading Idea of Greek Tragedy. — Symonds believes the
fundamental idea of Greek tragedy to be the Doctrine of Nemesis.
This doctrine seems to have been evolved out of the old idea of
the Divine Jealousy (see p. 33). Just as we have softened and
moralized the old Hebrew idea that all suifering is Divine punish-
ment for sin, evolving from it the Christian doctrine of affliction,
which regards a large part of human pains and sufferings, not as
penal inflictions, but rather as trials intended as a means of spir-
itual development ; in like manner the Greeks moralized their
unethical views of the cause of sudden reverses of fortime, of sud

162 THE THREE GREAT TRAGIC POETS.

den downfalls, and came to hold the doctrine that it is not mere
prosperity itself which arouses the anger and opposition of the
gods, but the pride and arrogance usually engendered in mortals
by over-great prosperity.

To understand how the Greeks should have come to regard
insolent self-assertion, or the unrestrained indulgence of appetite
or passion as the most heinous of sins, we must recall once more
the legend upon the front of the Delphian temple — " Measure in
all things." As proportion was the cardinal element of beauty in
art, so wise moderation was the prime quality in virtue. Those
who moderated not their desire of fame, of wealth, of dominion,
were the most impious of men, and all such the avenging Nemesis
failed not to bring, through their own mad presumption and over-
vaulting ambition, to overwhelming and irretrievable ruin. The
results of the Persian war confirmed the Greeks in this view of the
moral government of the world ; for had not they themselves seen
most signally punished the unbridled ambition, the insolence, the
presumptuous impiety, of the scourgers of the Hellespont and the
destroyers of the temples of the "gods ?

We shall see in a moment how this idea inspired some of the
greatest of the Greek dramas.

The Three Great Tragic Poets. — There are three great names
in Greek tragedy, — ^Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. These
dramatists all wrote during the splendid period which followed the
victories of the Persian war, when the intellectual life of all Hellas,
and especially that of Athens, was strung to the highest tension.
This lent nervous power and intensity to almost all they wrote,
particularly to the tragedies of ^schylus and Sophocles. Of the
two hundred and fifty-eight dramas produced by these poets, only
thirty-two have come down to us; all the others have perished
through the accidents of time,

^schylus (525-456 B.C.) was more than Shakespearian in the
gloom and intensity of his tragedies. He knew how to touch the
hearts of the generation that had won the victories of the Persian
war ; for he had fought with honor both at Marathon and at Sala-

GREEK LITERATURE.

163

mis. But it was on a very different arena that he was destined
to win his most enduring fame. Eleven times did he carry off the
prize in tragic composition. The Athenians called him the " Father
of Tragedy." Prometheus. Bound is one of his chief works — " one
of the boldest and most original dramas," Ranke declares, " that
have ever been written." The old Promethean myth which ^Es-
chylus makes the groimd-work of this tragedy was immoral ; that
is, it represents the Supreme Zeus as treating the Titan arbitrarily
and unjustly.^ But ^schylus moralizes the tale. He makes prora-

/ESCHYLUS.

inent Prometheus' faults of impatience and self-will, and shows
that his sufferings are but the just penalty of his presumption and
self-assertion.

1 In punishment for having stolen fire from heaven and given it to men, and
for having taught them the arts of life, the Titan Prometheus is chained by
Zeus to a lonely cliff on the remote shores of the Euxine, and an eagle is
sent to feed upon his liver, which each night grows anew.

164 THE THREE GREAT TRAGIC POETS,

Another of the great tragedies of ^schylus is his Agamemnon,
thought by some to be his masterpiece. The subject is the crime
of Clytcemnestra (see p. 17). It is a tragedy crowded with spirit-
shaking terrors, and filled with more than human crimes and woes.
Nowhere is portrayed with greater power the awful vengeance with
which the implacable Nemesis is armed.'

The theme of ^schylus' Fersce was the defeat of Xerxes and
his host, which afforded the poet a good opportunity " to state
his philosophy of Nemesis, here being a splendid tragic instance of
pride humbled, of greatness brought to nothing, through one man's
impiety and pride." The poet teaches that " no mortal may dare
raise his heart too high," — that " Zeus tames excessive lifting up
of heart."

Sophocles (495-405 B.C.) while yet a youth gained the prize in
a poetic contest with ^schylus (468 B.C.), Cimon being the chief
umpire. Plutarch says that .^schylus was so chagrined by his
defeat that he left Athens and retired to Sicily. Sophocles now
became the leader of tragedy at Athens. In almost every contest
he carried away the first prize. He lived through nearly a cen-
tury, a century, too, that comprised the most brilliant period of the
life of Hellas. His dramas were perfect works of art.

The central idea of his dramas is the same as that which char-
acterizes those of ^schylus ; namely, that self-will and insolent
pride arouse the righteous indignation of the gods, and that no
mortal can contend successfully against the will of Zeus. His
chief works are (Edipus Tyrannus, (Edipus Coloneus, and (prob-
ably) Antigone, all of which are founded upon the old tales of the
royal line of Thebes (see p. 13).

Euripides (485-406 B.C.) was a more popular dramatist than

1 The Agamemnon forms the first of a trilogy; that is, a series of three dramas,
the other pieces being entitled the ChoephorcB and the Eumenides. These
continue the subject of the Agamemnon, so that the three really form a single
drama or story. On the Greek stage, the several parts of the trilogy were
performed successively the same day. This trilogy of ^schylus is the only
one from the ancient stage of which all the parts have come down to us.

GREEK LITERATURE.

165

either ^schylus or Sophocles, ^schylus was too lofty, severe,
and earnest a poet to be long a favorite with the volatile and
pleasure-loving Athenians. They tired of him as they did of Aris-

SOPHOCLES.

tides. Nor was Sophocles sensational enough to please them,
after the state of exalted religious feeling awakened by the tremen-
dous experiences of the Persian war had passed away. Euripides
was a better representative than either of these of the Athenian in

166

COMEDY: ARISTOPHANES.

his normal mood. The Athenian cared more for aesthetics than

ethics.

The fame of Euripides passed far beyond the Umits of Greece.
Herodotus asserts that the verses of the poet were recited by the
natives of the remote country of Gedrosia ; and Plutarch says that
the Sicilians were so fond of his hues that many of the Athenian
prisoners, taken before Syracuse, bought their liberty by teaching
their masters such of his verses as they could repeat from memory,
Euripides is said to have written nearly one hundred plays, of
which number, however, only seventeen remain to us. Almost all
of these are based on incidents detailed in the Argonautic, Theban,
and Trojan legends.

Comedy : Aristophanes. — Foremost among all writers of com-
edy must be placed Aristophanes (about 444-380 b.c). He
introduces us to the every-day life of the least admirable classes of
Athenian society. Four of his most noted works are the Clouds,
the Knights, the Birds, and the Wasps.

In the comedy of the Clouds, Aristophanes especially ridicules
the Sophists, a school of philosophers and teachers just then rising
into prominence at Athens, of whom the satirist unfairly makes
Socrates the representative. But the points of the play were sus-
ceptible of a general application. " Everything that deceived,
concealed, shifted, eluded, was symbolized by clouds."

The aim of the Knights was the punishment and ruin of Cleon,
whom we already know as one of the most conceited and insolent
of the demagogues of Athens.

The play of the Birds is " the everlasting allegory of foolish
sham and flimsy ambition." " Cloud-Cuckootown," we quote the
critic Symonds, " is any castle in the air or South Sea Bubble
which might take the fancy of the Athenian mob." But while
having a general application, it was aimed particularly at the ambi-
tious Sicilian schemes of Alcibiades ; for at the time the play
appeared, the Athenian army was before Syracuse, and elated by
the good news daily arriving, the Athenians were building the most
gorgeous air-castles, and indulging in the most extravagant day-
dreams of universal dominion.

GREEK LITERATURE.

167

In the Wasps, the poet satirizes the proceedings in the Athenian
law-courts, by showing how the great citizen-juries were befooled
by the demagogues.

But Aristophanes was something more than a master of mere
mirth-provoking satire and ridicule : along with his exquisite sense
of the humorous he possessed a nature most delicately sensitive to
the finer emotions. Many of the choruses of his pieces are inex-
pressibly tender and beautiful.^

History and Historians.

Poetry is the first form of literary expression among all peoples.
So we must not be surprised to find that it was not until several
centuries after the composition of the Homeric poems — that is,
about the sixth century B.C. — that prose-writing appeared among
the Greeks. Historical composition was then first cultivated. We
can speak briefly of only three historians —
Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon —
whose names were cherished among the an-
cients, and whose writings are highly valued
and carefully studied by ourselves.

Herodotus. — Herodotus (about 484-402
B.C.), bom at Halicarnassus, in Asia Minor, is
called the " Father of History." He travelled
over much of the then known world ; visited
Italy, Egypt, and Babylonia ; and describes as
an eye-witness, with a never-failing vivacity and
freshness, the wonders of the different lands
he had seen. Herodotus lived in a story-telling
age, and he is himself an inimitable story-teller.
To him we are indebted for a large part
of the tales of antiquity — stories of men and events which we
never tire of repeating. He was over-credulous, and was often

^ Menander (342-292 B.C.). — Menander was, after Aristophanes, the most
noted of Greek comic poets. He was the leader of what is known as the New
Comedy. His plays were very popular with the Romans,

HERODOTUS.

168 HISTORY: HERODOTUS.

imposed upon by his guides in Egypt and at Babylon; but he
describes with great care and accuracy what he himself saw. It is
sometimes very difficult, however, to determine just what he actu-
ally did see with his own eyes and experience in his own person ;
for it seems certain that, following the custom of the story-tellers
of his time, he often related as his own personal adventures the
experiences of others, yet with no thought of deceiving. In this
he might be likened to our modem writers of historical romances.

The central theme of his great History is the Persian wars, the
struggle between Asia and Greece. Around this he groups the
several stories of the nations of antiquity. In the pictures which
the artist-historian draws, we see vividly contrasted, as in no other
writings, the East and the West, Persia and Hellas.

The fundamental idea of the whole history, the conception which
shapes and colors the main narrative, is the same as that which
inspires the tragedies of ^schylus — the doctrine of Nemesis.
This is expressed in the admonition which Artabanus is repre-
sented as giving to his nephew Xerxes, when the king was medi-
tating his expedition against Greece : " The god loves to cut down
all towering things . . . the god suffers none but himself to be
haughty. Rash haste ever goes before a fall ; but self-restraint
brings blessings, not seen at the moment perhaps, yet found out
in due time." ^ Possessed by this idea, the historian becomes a
dramatist, and his history a world-tragedy. In the ethical lesson it
teaches, it is practically an expansion of the ^schylean drama of
the PerscE.

Besides this leading Herodotean idea of Nemesis, there are two
other important conceptions entering into the historian's philoso-
phy of the universe. These are the notion of the Divine Envy
(see p. 33), and the general doctrine of the interference of the
gods in human affairs. Herodotus had a naive behef in omens,
oracles, and miracles generally, and this leads him constantly to
attribute to preternatural causes the most ordinary events of his-

1 Herodotus, Book VII. chap. 10. Quoted by Professor Jebb, Greek Litera-
ture, p. 105.

GREEK LITERATURE.

169

tory. His belief in the old immoral doctrine of the Envy of the
Gods, — which he retains along with his maturer views of Neme-
sis,— causes him to delight in telling stories illustrative of the
vicissitudes of life and the instability of fortune, as witness his tale
of Polycrates (see p. 37, note).

Thucydides. — Thucydides (about 471-400 b.c), though not so
popular an historian as Herodotus, was a much more philosoph-
ical one. He was born near Athens. A pretty
story is told of his youth, which must be repeated,
though critics have pronounced it fabulous. The
tale is that Thucydides, when only fifteen, was
taken by his father to hear Herodotus recite
his history at the Olympian games, and that the
reading and the accompanying applause caused
the boy to shed tears, and to resolve to become
an historian.

Thucydides was engaged in military service

during the first years of the Peloponnesian War ;

but, on account of his being unfortunate, possibly

through his own neglect, the Athenians deprived

him of his command, and he went into an exile of twenty years.

It is to this circumstance that we are indebted for his invaluable

History of the War between the Peloponnesians and Athenians.

Through the closest observation and study, he qualified himself
to become the historian of what he from the first foresaw would
prove a memorable war. " I lived," he says, " through its whole
extent, in the very flower of my understanding and strength, and
with a close appUcation of my thoughts, to gain an exact insight
into all its occurrences." He died before his task was completed.
The work is considered a model of historical writing. In fairness,
truthfulness, clearness, and philosophical insight, Thucydides has
never been surpassed as a narrator and interpreter of events.
Demosthenes read and re-read his writings to improve his own
style ; and the greatest orators and historians of modern times
have been equally diligent students of the work of the great Athe-
nian.

THUCYDIDES.

170 XENOPHON.

Xenophon. — Xenophon (about 445-355 B.C.) was an Athenian,
and is known both as a general and a writer. The works that
render his name so famihar are his Anabasis, a simple yet thrilling
narrative of the retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks ; and his
Memorabilia, or Recollections of Socrates. This work by his
devoted yet by no means brilliant pupil is the most faithful por-
traiture that we possess of that philosopher.

Xenophon's Cyropcedia, or Education of Cyrus, is essentially an
historical romance, which portrays not alone the youth, but the
whole life of Cyrus the Great, besides delineating the manners and
institutions of the Persians. It has been classed with Plato's Re-
public and More's Utopia.

Oratory.

Influence of the Public Assembly. — The art of oratory among
the Greeks was fostered and developed by the democratic char-
acter of their institutions. In the public assemblies all questions
that concerned the state were discussed and decided. The
debates, as we have seen, were, in the democratic cities, open to
all. The gift of eloquence secured for its possessor a sure pre-
eminence, and conferred a certain leadership in the affairs of state.
The law-courts, too, especially the great jury courts of Athens, were
schools of oratory ; for every citizen was obliged to be his own
advocate and to defend his own case.^ Hence the attention be-
stowed upon public speaking, and the high degree of perfection
attained by the Greeks in the difficult art of persuasion. " It was
the prevalence of the habit of public speaking," says Grote, " that
was one of the principal causes of the intellectual eminence of the
nation generally." Almost all the prominent Athenian statesmen
were masters of oratory.

1 The oratory of the Athenian law-courts was not always, it must he con-
fessed, of a very high order. To move the sympathies of the jurors, the
speakers too often had recourse to the low arts of the demagogue. Yet in
general these courts certainly developed a popular taste and aptitude for pub-
lic speaking.

CHEEK LITERATURE. 171

Themistocles and Pericles. — We have already become ac-
quainted with Themistocles and Pericles as statesmen and leaders
of Athenian affairs during the most stining period of Athens' his-
tory. They both were also great orators, though they are not
generally classed with the orators of Greece,^ and to that fact were
largely, if not chiefly, indebted for their power and influence.
Thucydides has preserved the oration delivered by Pericles in
commemoration of those who fell in the first year of the Pelopon-
nesian War.- It is an incomparable picture of the beauty and
glory of Athens at the zenith of her power, and has been pro-
nounced one of the finest productions of antiquity. The language
of the address, as we have it, is the historian's, but the sentiments
are doubtless those of the great statesman. It was the habit of
Thucydides to put speeches into the mouths of his characters.

. Demosthenes and .fischines. — It has been the fortune of De-
mosthenes (385-322 B.C.) to have his name become throughout
the world the synonym of eloquence. The labors and struggles
by which, according to tradition, he achieved excellence in his art
are held up anew to each generation of youth as guides of the
path to success. His first address before the public assembly was
a complete failure, owing to defects of voice and manner. With
indomitable will he set himself to the task of correcting these.
He shut himself up in a cave, and gave himself to the diligent
study of Thucydides. That he might not be tempted to spend
his time in society, he rendered his appearance ridiculous by shav-
ing one side of his head. To correct a stammering utterance, he

1 Antiphon (480-411 B.C.) was regarded by the Greeks as the first of
the ten Athenian orators. Lysias (458-?378 B.C.), Isocrates (436-338 B.C.),
and Isseus (b. about 420 B.C.) were all noted representatives of the art of
political or forensic oratory, and forerunners of Demosthenes. We should call
Isocrates a rhetorician instead of an orator, as his discourses (which for the most
part were written for others to deliver) were intended to be read rather than
spoken. The Roman Cicero was his debtor and imitator.

2 " This custom still prevails throughout Hellas. No man of note dies with-
out the ofifering of this last tribute by his friends or relatives. Many men
make the delivery of these funeral orations their profession." — Timayenis.

172

DEMOSTHENES AND ^SCHINES.

spoke with pebbles in his mouth, and broke himself of an ungainly
habit of shrugging his shoulders by speaking beneath a suspended
sword. To accustom himself to the tumult and interruptions of
the public assembly, he declaimed upon the noisiest sea-shore.

DEMOSTHENES.

These are some of the many stories told of the world's greatest
orator. There is doubtless this much truth in them at least —
that Demosthenes attained success, in spite of great discourage-

GREEK LITERATURE. 173

ments, by persevering and laborious effort. It is certain that he
was a most diligent student of Thucydides, whose great history he
is said to have known by heart. More than sixty of his orations
have been preserved. " Of all human productions they present
to us the models which approach the nearest to perfection."

The latter part of the life of Demosthenes is intertwined with
that of another and rival Athenian orator, ^schines. For his
services to the state, the Athenians proposed to award to Demos-
thenes a crown of gold, ^schines opposed this. All Athens
and strangers from far and near gathered in the Agora, to hear
the rival orators ; for every matter at Athens was decided by a
great debate. Demosthenes made the grandest effort of his life.
His address, known as the " Oration on the Crown," has been
declared to be " the most polished and powerful effort of human
oratory." ^schines was completely crushed, and was sent into
exile, and became a teacher of oratory at Rhodes.

He is said to have once gathered his disciples about him, and
to have read to them the oration of Demosthenes that had proved
so fatal to himself. Carried away by the torrent of its eloquence,
his pupils, unable to restrain their enthusiasm, burst into applause.
" Ah ! " said ^schines, who seemed to find solace in the fact that
his defeat had been at the hands of so worthy an antagonist,
" you should have heard the wild beast himself ! "

Respecting the orations (PhiUppics) of Demosthenes against
Philip of Macedon, and the death of the eloquent patriot, we have
already spoken (see pp. no, 128)

IV. The Alexandrian Age (300-146 B.C.)

Character of the Literature. — The Alexandrian period of Greek
literature embraces the time between the break-up of Alexander's
empire and the conquest of Greece by Rome (300-146 B.C.).
During this period Alexandria in Egypt was the center of Ht-
erary activity, hence the term Alexandrian, applied to the liter-
ature of the age. The great museum and library of the Ptolemies

174 WORKS AND WRITERS.

afforded in that capital such facihties for students and authors as
existed in no other city in the world.

But the creative age of Greek literature was over. With the
loss of political liberty, literature was cut off from its sources of
inspiration. Consequently, the Alexandrian literature lacked fresh-
ness, spontaneity, originality. It was imitative, critical, and learned.
The writers of the period were grammarians, commentators, and
translators — in a word, book-worms.

Works and Writers. — One of the most important literary
undertakings of the age was the translation of the Old Testa-
ment of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. From the traditional
number of translators (seventy) the version is known as the Sep-
h'Mgint (Latin for seventy). The work was probably begun by
Ptolemy Philadelphus, and was completed under his successors.

It was also during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus that Mane-
tho wrote his history of Egypt, compiled from the manuscripts
kept in the archives of the Egyptian temples. Just about the
same time Berosus compiled, for one of the Seleucidse, the
chronicles of Chaldaea. We possess only fragments of these
works, but these have a high historical value.

Among the poets of the period one name, and only one, stands
out clear and pre-eminent. This is that of Theocritus, a Sicilian
idyllist, who wrote at Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus.
His idyls are beautiful pictures of Sicihan pastoral life.

During the Alexandrian period science was cultivated by Greek
scholars with considerable success ; but the names most noted in
this department will more properly find a place in the following
chapter on Greek philosophy and science.

Conclusion : Graeco-Roman Writers. — After the Roman con-
quest of Greece, the center of Greek literary activity shifted from
Alexandria to Rome. Hence Greek literature now passes into
what is known as its Graeco-Roman Period (146 B.C.-527 a.d.).

The most noted historical writer of the first part of this period
was Polybius (about 203-121 b.c), who wrote a history of the
Roman conquests from 264 to 146 B.C. His work, though the
larger part of it has reached us in a very mutilated state, is of

GkEEK LlTERArVkR. 175

great worth ; for Polybius wrote of matters that had become his-
tory in his own day. He had Uved to see the larger part of the
world he knew absorbed by the evergrowing power of the Impe-
rial City.

Diodorus Siculus (lived under Augustus Csesar at Rome) was
the author of a General History of the World. Herodotus had
grouped all his material about the struggle between Greece and
Persia, but Diodorus Siculus makes Rome the centre of the whole
story. Already men were coming to regard Rome as the pre-
ordained head and ruler of the world.

Plutarch (b. about 40 a.d.), "the prince of biographers," will
always live in literature as the author of the Parallel Lives, in
which, with great wealth of illustrative anecdotes, he compares or
contrasts Greek and Roman statesmen and soldiers. The motive
that led Plutarch to write the book, as we may infer from the par-
tiality which he displays for his Grecian heroes, was a desire " to
show the world that there was a time when the Greeks were supe-
rior to the Romans."

176 RELATION OF MYTHOLOGY TO PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER XII.

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE.

Relation of Mythology to Philosophy. — Philosophy has been
very aptly defined as mythology grown old and wise. Grecian
mythology did not become sufficiently wise to be called philos-
ophy until the sixth century B.C. About that time the Greeks
began to think and to inquire in a philosophical manner respect-
ing the phenomena and laws of the universe of mind and matter,
giving the most attention at first, however, to the physical world.
Having once entered upon this path, the Greek race reached,
almost at a bound, the loftiest heights of philosophical specu-
lation.

The Use of Verse in Philosophy. — All the earlier Greek phi-
losophers were poet-philosophers ; that is, they conveyed their
instruction in verse, " dragging the hexameter," as one figures it,
"along the pathway of their argument upon the entities, like a
pompous sacrificial vestment." Heraclitus (about 500 B.C.) was
the first prominent thinker to employ prose in philosophical dis-
cussions. As a consequence of his innovation, he failed to be
understood, and his would-be disciples were out of patience with
him because he did not philosophize to them in the usual way.

The Seven Sages ; the Forerunners. — About the sixth century
B.C. there lived and taught in different parts of Hellas many phi-
losophers of real or reputed originality and wisdom. Among these
were seven men, called the " Seven Sages," who held the place of
pre-eminence. As in the case of the Seven Wonders of the
World, ancient writers were not always agreed as to what names
should be accorded the honor of enrollment in the sacred number.
Thales, Solon, Periander, Cleobulus, Chilo, Bias, and Pittacus are,
however, usually reckoned as the Seven Wise Men. To them

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 177

belongs the distinction of having first aroused the Greek intellect
to philosophical thought. The wise sayings — such as " Know
thyself" and "Nothing in excess" — attributed to them, are
beyond number.

It will be noticed that several of the sages were tyrants or
lawgivers. This is not a mere coincidence ; it is explained by
the fact that participation in active political life stirs and quickens
the intellect.

The ethical maxims and practical proverbs ascribed to the
sages, while, like the so-called proverbs of Solomon, they con-
tain a vast amount of practical wisdom, still do not constitute
philosophy proper, which is a systematic search for the reason
and causes of things. They form simply the introduction or prel-
ude to Greek philosophy.

The Ionic Philosophers. — The first Greek school of philosophy
grew up in the cities of Ionia, in Asia Minor, where almost all
forms of Hellenic culture seem to have had their beginning. The
founder of the system was Thales of Miletus (about 640-550 B.C.),
who was followed by Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Heraclitus.

One tenet held in common by all these philosophers was that
matter and mind are inseparable ; or, in other words, that all
matter is animate. They never thought of the soul as something
distinct and separable from matter, as we do. Even the shade in
Hades was conceived as having a body in every respect like that
the soul possessed in the earthly life, only it was composed of a
subtler substance. This conception of matter as being alive will
help us to understand Greek mythology, which, it will be remem-
bered, endowed trees, rivers, springs, clouds, the planets, all phy-
sical objects indeed, with intelligence and will.

This sensate matter the philosophers held to be eternal, regard-
ing creation and annihilation as both alike impossible.

But this animated matter appeared under four forms — fire, air,
water, and earth, the well-known " four elements." ^ Out of

1 At first the elements numbered only three, — air, water, and earth, — fire
being regarded as simply a kind of refined air. These elements of the ancient
philosophers answer to the seventy or more elements of modern chemistry.

j^g PYTHAGORAS.

these four elements all things in heaven and earth were made.
But the philosophers differed as to which of the four elements
was the original principle, that is, the one from which all the
others were derived; for the Greek mind could not rest until
it had found unity. Thales believed water to be the first prin-
ciple ; Anaximenes urged that it was air ; while Heraclitus taught
that it was fire.^ ^

From the original element all the others were supposed to be
derived by a process of rarefaction and condensation. (This
notion is something like the modern theory of astronomical evo-
lution, which, from an original infinitely expanded gaseous nebula,
produces by successive condensations the air, the water, and the
solid rock of the various planets.) Rain was simply condensed
air. The wood and flesh of the sacrifice, when consumed upon
the altar, were merely transformed into fire (ether), which seeking
its own, naturally mounted to its native sphere — the empyrean.
This philosophical notion helps us to understand the fundamental
idea of the ancient sacrifices. The gods were pleased with the
offerings, because these being converted into flame or ether,
could be actually partaken of as food by the celestials.

Pythagoras. — Pythagoras (about 580-500 b.c.) was born on the
island of Samos, whence his title of '' Samian Sage." Probable
tradition says that he spent many years of his early hfe in Egypt,
where, being admitted, through the favor and influence of King
Amasis, to the sacred colleges of the priests, he became versed in
all the mysteries of the Egyptians. He returned to Greece with a
great reputation, and finally settled at Croton, in Italy. Here
he gathered about him a renowned school, or society, composed of
six hundred companions, all selected with special regard to their
capacity to assimilate his peculiar doctrines.

Like many another ancient philosopher, Pythagoras sought to

1 By the term fire the ancient philosophers meant about what we under-
stand by the term ether (which comes from the Greek word kiB^iv, meaning
"to burn "). The ether or fire formed a sphere above the air, ensphering it
just as it in turn enspheres the earth.

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 179

increase the reverence of his disciples for himself by peculiarities
of dress and manner. His uncut hair and beard flowed down
upon his shoulders and over his breast. He never smiled. His
dress was a white robe, with a golden crown. For the first years
of their novitiate, his pupils were not allowed to look upon their
master. They hstened to his lectures from behind a curtain.
Ipse dixit, " he himself said so," was the only argument they must
employ in debate. It is to Pythagoras that we are indebted for
the word philosopher. Being asked of what he was master, he
replied that he was simply a " philosopher," that is, a " lover of
wisdom."

Pythagoras held views of the solar system that anticipated by
two thousand years those of Copernicus and his school. He
taught, only to his most select pupils however, that the earth is a
sphere ; and that, Hke the other planets, it revolves about a cen-
tral globe of fire. From him comes the pretty conceit of the
" music of the spheres." He imagined that the heavenly spheres,
by their swift, rolling motions, produced musical notes, which united
in a celestial melody, too refined for human ears. Music held an
important place in his system of philosophy.

He taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, an idea
he had doubtless brought from Egypt. Because of this belief the
Pythagoreans were strict vegetarians, abstaining religiously from
the use of all animal food.

Anaxagoras. — Anaxagoras (499-427 b.c.) was the first Greek
philosopher who made mind, instead of necessity or chance, the
arranging and harmonizing force of the universe. " Reason rules
the world" was his first maxim. This proposition, which makes
mind and matter t^vo distinct things, and mind the fashioner of
matter, marks a turning-point in Greek philosophy. It based it
upon the same fundamental conceptions as that upon which the
Hebrew philosophy of the world rested, and prepared the way for
the union, four centuries later, of these two systems of thought, at
Alexandria (see p. 189).

Anaxagoras was the teacher in philosophy of Pericles, and it 19

180

EMPEDOCLES AND DEMOCRITUS.

certain that that statesman was greatly influenced by the liberal
views of the philosopher; for in his general conceptions of the
universe, Anaxagoras was far in advance of his age. He ventured
to believe that the moon was somewhat like the earth, and in-
habited ; and taught that the sun was not a god, but a glowing
rock, as large, probably, as the Peloponnesus.

But for his audacity, the philosopher suffered the fate of Galileo
in a later age ; he was charged with impiety and exiled. Yet this
did not disturb the serenity of his mind. In banishment he said,
" It is not I who have lost the Athenians, but the Athenians who
have lost me."

Empedocles and Democritus. — In the teachings of Empedocles
(about 492-432 B.C.) and Democritus (about 460-370 B.C.) we
meet with many speculations respecting the constitution of matter
and the origin of things which are startlingly similar to some of
the doctrines held by modern scientists.

Empedocles was an evolutionist. He said, "Since the higher
forms of life can only arise out of the lower, these latter must be
regarded as the lower stages through which the former must pass."
In this conclusion Empedocles anticipated modem evolutionists
twenty centuries ; but then he failed to point out the law (natural
selection) through the operations of which the transformation
takes place, and so his happy guess as to the '' origin of species "
remained only a guess.

Democritus, in his theory of atoms, made a very close approach
in some respects to the views of modern physicists regarding the
constitution of matter and the formation of the worlds. He con-
ceived all things, including the soul, to be composed of invisible,
uncreated atoms, all alike in quality, but differing in form and
combination. Respecting the formation of the world from the
original chaos of atoms, he held a theory that had points of simi-
larity to the modem nebular hypothesis.

The Sophists. — The Sophists, of whom the most noted were
Protagoras, Gorgias, and Prodicus, were a class of philosophers or
teachers who gave instruction in rhetoric and the art of disputa-

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 181

tion. They travelled about from city to city, and, contrary to the
usual custom of the Greek philosophers, took fees from their
pupils. They were shallow but brilliant men, caring more for the
dress in which the thought was arrayed than for the thought
itself, more for victory than for truth ; and some of them incul-
cated a selfish morality, placing expediency before right. The
better philosophers of the time despised them, and applied to
them many harsh epithets, taunting them with selling wisdom, and
accusing them of boasting that they could " make the worse ap-
pear the better reason."

But this latter accusation was unjust. What the Sophists, among
other things conducive to success in life, really taught the people
was the art of conducting their own cases before the great citizen-
juries, where every man was forced to be his own advocate. That
their pupils often employed the art in making the unjust appear
the just cause, there is no doubt ; but the Sophists should hardly
be held responsible for this abuse of the art they taught. The
lawyer's profession of the present day is often perverted, but not
for that reason should the whole art of pleading and of forensic
oratory be left untaught.

Socrates. — Volumes would not contain what would be both
instructive and interesting respecting the lives and works of the
three great philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We can,
however, accord to each only a few words. Of these three emi-
nent thinkers, Socrates (469-399 b.c), though surpassed in grasp
and power of intellect by both Plato and Aristotle, has the firmest
hold upon the affections of the world.

Nature, while generous to the philosopher in the gifts of soul,
was unkind to him in the matter of his person. His face was ugly
as a satyr's, and he had an awkward, shambling walk, so that he
invited the shafts of the comic poets of his time. His figure is
said to have been the most ungainly, and therefore the most famil-
iar, of any upon the streets of Athens. He loved to gather a little
circle about him in the Agora or in the streets, and then to draw
out his listeners by a series of ingenious questions. His method

182

SOCRA TES.

was SO peculiar to himself that it has received the designation of
the " Socratic dialogue." He has very happily been called an edu-
cator, as opposed to an instructor. In the young men of his time
Socrates found many devoted pupils. The youthful Alcibiades
declared that "he was forced to stop his ears and flee away,
that he might not sit down by the side of Socrates and grow old
in listening."

Socrates was unfortunate in his do-
mestic relations. Xanthippe, his wife,
seems to have been of a practical turn
of mind, and unable to sympathize with
the abstracted ways of her husband.
" Sometimes she threw water on him ;
but this only elicited from the mild
philosopher the remark to those about
him, ' Did I not say that Xanthippe
was thundering and would soon rain?' "

This great philosopher believed that
the proper study of mankind is man,
his favorite maxim being " Know Thy-
self" ; hence he is said to have brought

philosophy from the heavens and introduced it to the homes of
men.

Socrates held the Sophists in aversion, and in opposition to their
selfish expediency taught the purest system of morals that the
world had yet known, and which has been surpassed, only by the
precepts of the Great Teacher. He thought himself to be re-
strained from entering upon what was inexpedient or wrong, by a
tutelary spirit (demon). He believed in the immortality of the
soul and in a Supreme Ruler of the universe, but sometimes spoke
slightingly of the temples and the popular deities. This led to his
prosecution on the double charge of blasphemy and of corrupting
the Athenian youth. The fact that Alcibiades had been his pupil
was used to prove the demoralizing tendency of his teachings.
He was condemned to drink the fatal hemlock. The night before

SOCRATES.

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE.

183

his death he spent with his disciples, discoursing on the immor-
taUty of the soul,

Plato. — Plato (429-348 B.C.), "the broad-browed," was a phi-
losopher of noble birth, before whom in youth opened a briUiant
career in the world of Greek affairs ; but, coming under the influ-
ence of Socrates, he resolved to give up all his prospects in politics
and devote himself to philosophy. Upon the condemnation and
death of his master he went into voluntary exile. In many lands
he gathered knowledge and met with varied experiences. He

visited Sicily, where he was so unfor-
tunate as to call upon himself the
resentment of Dionysius, tyrant of
Syracuse, through having worsted
him in an argument, and also by an
uncourtly plainness of speech. The
king caused him to be sold into
slavery as a prisoner of war. Being
ransomed by a friend, he found his
way to his native Athens, and estab-
lished a school of philosophy in the
Academy, a public garden close to
Athens. Here, amid the disciples
that thronged to his lectures, he
passed the greater part of his long
life — he died 348 b.c, at the age
of eighty-one years — laboring in-
cessantly upon the great works that
bear his name.
Plato imitated in his writings Socrates' method in conversation.
The discourse is carried on by questions and answers, hence the
term Dialogues that attaches to his works. He attributes to his
master, Socrates, much of the philosophy that he teaches : yet
his Dialogues are all deeply tinged with his own genius and
thought. In the Republic Plato portrays his conception of an
ideal state. He was opposed to the republic of Athens, and his

PLATO.

184 ARISTOTLE.

system, in some of its main features, was singularly like the Feudal
System of Mediaeval Europe. Especially is this true as to his
military aristocracy.

The Phcedo is a record of the last conversation of Socrates with
his disciples — an immortal argument for the immortality of the
soul.

Plato believed not only in a future life (post-existence), but also
in pre-existence ; teaching that the ideas of reason, or our intui-
tions, are reminiscences of a past experience.^ Plato's doctrines
have exerted a profound influence upon all schools of thought and
philosophies since his day. In some of his precepts he made a
close approach to the teachings of Christianity. " We ought to
become like God," he said, "as far as this is possible; and to
become like Him is to become holy and just and wise."

Aristotle. — As Socrates was surpassed by his pupil Plato, so in
turn was Plato excelled by his disciple Aristotle, " the master of
those who know." In him the philosophical genius of the Hel-

^ In the following lines from Wordsworth we catch a glimpse of Plato's doc-
trine of pre-existence :

" Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting.

And Cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
Nor yet in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come
From God, who is our home." — Ode on Immortality.

And again : " And but for our surface and distracted lives — lived here for
the most part in the senses — we should have never lost the consciousness of
our descent into immortality, nor have questioned our resurrection and lon-
gevity. But as in descending all drink of oblivion — some more, some less —
it happens that while all are conscious of life, by defect of memory our recol-
lections are various concerning it; those discerning most vividly who have
drunk least of oblivion, they more easily recalling the memory of their past
existence. Ancient of days, we hardly are persuaded to believe that our souls
are no older than our bodies, and to date our nativity from our family registers,
as if time and space could chronicle the periods of the immortal mind by its
advent into the flesh and decease out of it." — Alcott's Tablets, p. 203.

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE.

185

lenic intellect reached its culmination. It may be doubted
whether all the ages since his time have produced so profound
and powerful an intellect as his. He was born in the Macedonian
city of Stagira (384 B.C.), and hence is frequently called the " Sta-

ARISTOTLE.

girite." As in the case of Socrates, his personal appearance gave
no promise of the philosopher. He had a small and contemptible
body, the defects of which were made more noticeable by his over-

186 ZENO AND THE STOICS.

scrupulous care of his dress and by the finery he wore. His
teacher Plato, however, recognized the genius of his pupil, and
called him the " Mind of the school." When he missed him from
the class he would say, " Intellect is not here to-day." He also
called him " The Reader," because he devoured so eagerly the
works of the masters.

After studying for twenty years in the school of Plato, Aristotle
became the preceptor of Alexander the Great. When Philip in-
vited him to become the tutor of his son, he gracefully compli-
mented the philosopher by saying in his letter that he was grateful
to the gods that the prince was born in the same age with him.
The royal pupil loved his great teacher with an affectionate devo-
tion. He said; " I owe great love to my father and to my teacher
Aristotle ; to one for living, and to the other for living well."
Alexander became the liberal patron of his tutor, and, besides
giving him large sums of money, aided him in his scientific studies
by sending him large collections of plants and animals, gathered
on his distant expeditions.

At Athens the great philosopher delivered his lectures while
walking about beneath the trees and porticos of the Lyceum ;
hence the term peripatetic (from the Greek peripatein, " to walk
about") applied to his philosophy. He died 322 B.C., the same
year that marks the death of Demosthenes.

Among the productions of his fertile intellect are works on
rhetoric, logic, poetry, morals and politics, physics and meta-
physics. For centuries his works were studied and copied and
commented upon by both European and Asiatic scholars, in the
schools of Athens and Rome, of Alexandria and Constantinople.
Until the time of Bacon in England, for nearly two thousand
years, Aristotle ruled over the, realm of mind with a despotic sway.
All teachers and philosophers acknowledged him as their guide
and master.

Zeno and the Stoics. — We are now approaching the period
when the political life of Hellas was failing, and was being fast
overshadowed by the greatness of Rome. But the intellectual life

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 187

of the Greek race was by no means eclipsed by the calamity that
ended its political existence. For centuries after that event the
poets, scholars, and philosophers of this intellectual people led a
brilliant career in the schools and universities of the Roman
world.

From among all the philosophers of this long period, we can
select for brief mention only a few. And first we shall speak of
Zeno and Epicurus, who are noted as founders of schools of phi-
losophy that exerted a vast influence upon both the thought and
the conduct of many centuries.

Zeno, founder of the celebrated school of the Stoics, lived in
the third century before our era (about 362-264). He taught at
Athens in a public porch (in Greek, stod), from which circumstance
comes the name applied to his disciples.

The Stoical philosophy was the outgrowth, in part at least, of
that of the Cynics, a sect of most rigid and austere morals. The
typical representative of this sect is found in Diogenes, who lived,
so the story goes, in a tub, and went about Athens by daylight
with a lantern, in search, as he said, of a man. The Cynics were
simply a race of pagan hermits : Diogenes was the Simon Stylites
(a noted Christian ascetic) of the sect.

Zeno adopted all that was good in the code of the Cynics, and,
adding to this everj'thing that he found of value in the systems of
other philosophers, he formed therefrom his new philosophy. It
became a favorite system of thought with certain classes of the
Romans, and under its teachings and doctrines were nourished
some of the purest and loftiest characters produced by the pagan
world. It numbered among its representatives, in later times, the
illustrious Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, and the scarcely less
renowned and equally virtuous slave Epictetus. In many of its
teachings it anticipated Christian doctrines, and was, in the philo-
sophical world, a very important preparation for Christianity.

The Stoics inculcated virtue for the sake of itself. They be-
lieved — and it would be very difficult to frame a better creed —
that " man's chief business here is to do his duty." Bodily pain,

188 EPICtJRUS AND THE EPICUREANS.

they taught, was nothing ; and they schooled themselves to bear
with perfect composure any lot that destiny might appoint. Any
sign of emotion on account of calamity was considered unmanly
and unphilosophical. Thus, when told of the sudden death of his
son, the Stoic replied, " Well, I never imagined that I had given
life to an immortal."

Epicurus and the Epicureans. — Epicurus (342-270 b.c),
who was a contemporary of Zeno, taught, in opposition to the
Stoics, that pleasure is the highest good. He recommended vir-
tue, indeed, but only as a means for the attainment of pleasure ;
whereas the Stoics made virtue an end in itself. In other words,
Epicurus said, "Be virtuous, because virtue will bring you the
greatest amount of happiness " ; Zeno said, " Be virtuous, because
you ought to be."

Epicurus had many followers in Greece, and his doctrines were
eagerly embraced by many among the Romans during the corrupt
and licentious period of the Roman empire. Many of these
disciples carried the doctrines of their master to an excess
that he himself would have been the first to condemn. (There
is often more of good or evil in a philosophy than its founder
ever dreams of.) Allowing full indulgence to every appetite and
passion, their whole philosophy was expressed in the proverb,
" Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." No pure or
exalted life could be nourished in the unwholesome atmosphere
of such a philosophy. Epicureanism never produced a single
great character.

The Skeptics; Pyrrho. — About the beginning of the third
century b.c. skepticism became widespread in Greece. It
seemed as though men were losing faith in everything. Many
circumstances had worked together in bringing about this state of
universal unbeUef. A wider knowledge of the world had caused
many to lose their faith in the myths and legends of the old
mythologies. The existence of so many systems of philosophy
caused men to doubt the truth of any of them. The conquests
of Alexander, by bringing the Greek mind in contact with the

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 189

Strange Asiatic systems of belief, tended powerfully to deepen and
confirm this feeling of bewilderment and uncertainty. Many
thoughtful minds were hopelessly asking, "What is truth?"

Pyrrho (about 360-270 B.C.) was the Greek Thomas. He
doubted everything, and declared that the great problems of the
univ^erse could not be solved. It was the duty of man, and the
part of wisdom, to entertain no positive judgment on any matter,
and thus to ensure serenity and peace of mind.

The disciples of Pyrrho went to absurd lengths in their skepti-
cism, some of them even saying that they asserted nothing, not
even that they asserted nothing. They doubted whether they
doubted.

The Neo-Platonists. — Neo-Platonism was a blending of Greek
philosophy and Oriental mysticism. It has been well called the
" despair of reason," because it abandoned all hope of man's ever
being able to attain the highest knowledge through the intellect,
and held that the human soul, when in an ecstatic state or prophet-
like trance, received, through a higher faculty than reason, in a
sort of vision, revelations of divine and eternal truth. It was
chiefly a theological philosophy ; that is, it dealt with the nature
of God and his relations to man. The centre of this last move-
ment in Greek philosophical thought was Alexandria in Egypt,
the meeting-place, in the closing centuries of the ancient world, of
the East and the West.

Philo the Jew (b. about 30 B.C.), who labored to harmonize
Hebrew doctrines with the teachings of Plato, was the forerunner
of the Neo-Platonists. But the greatest of the school was Ploti-
nus (a.d. 204-269), who spent the last years of his Hfe at Rome,
where he was a great favorite. Four times in six years, according
to one of his disciples, was he freed from the body, and being
absorbed in the Infinite, saw God, in ecstatic vision.

Conflict between Neo-Platonism and Christianity. — While
the Neo-Platonists were laboring to restore, in modified form, the
ancient Greek philosophy and worship, the teachers of Christi-
anity were fast winning the world over to a new faith. The two

190 SCIENCE AMONG THE GREEKS.

systems came into deadly antagonism. For a time the issue of
the contention between the Hellenic philosophers and the Chris-
tian Fathers may have seemed doubtful. But by the close of
the third century a.d. it was plain that the majority of the people
of the Roman empire, which now virtually embraced the world,
were already, or at least soon would be, disciples of the Christian
teachers. It was doubtless his persuasion of this fact that led the
Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (a.d. 306-337) to throw
his influence on the side of the Christian Fathers, and proclaim
Christianity as the favored religion of the empire.

Under Julian the Apostate (Roman Emperor a.d. 361-363;,
who was an ardent Neo-Platonist, the Hellenic philosophy was
restored, and every effort made to discredit and destroy the
Christian faith. With his death, however, passed away the last
good hope of the restoration of the renovated philosophy of
ancient Greece. The gifted and beautiful Hypatia, almost the
last representative of the old system of speculation and belief,
was torn to pieces in the streets of Alexandria by a mob of fanatic
Christian monks (a.d. 415). Finally the Roman Emperor Justin-
ian forbade the pagan philosophers to teach their doctrines (a.d.
529).^ This imperial edict closed forever the Greek schools, in
which for more than a thousand years the world had received
instruction upon the loftiest themes that can engage the human
mind. The Greek philosophers, as living, personal teachers, had
finished their work ; but their systems of thought will never cease
to attract and influence the best minds of the race.

Science among the Greeks.

In ancient times no single people or race excelled in all depart-
ments of knowledge or human endeavor. Having, then, seen the
wonderful genius of the Greek race for art, literature, and philoso-
phy, we are prepared to learn that they never evinced great apti-
tude for the more practical sciences. In art and literature the

* See Myers' Mediaval and Modern History, pp. 68, 69.

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 191

Greeks are still our teachers ; in science we are immeasurably
their superiors. Still, while this is true, the contributions of the
Greek observers to the physical sciences have laid us under no
small obligation to them. Especially did the later Greeks do
much good and lasting work in the mathematical sciences.

Some of those whom we have classed as philosophers, Thales
and Anaxagoras for instance, were careful students of nature, and
might be called scientists. The great philosopher Aristotle wrote
some valuable works on anatomy and natural history, his observa-
tions being held in the highest esteem by naturalists of the present
day for their accuracy. From his time onward the sciences were
pursued with much zeal and success.

Mathematics: Euclid and Archimedes. — Alexandria, in Egypt,
became the seat of the most celebrated school of mathematics of
antiquity. Here, under Ptolemy Lagus, flourished Euclid, the
great geometer, whose work forms the basis of the science of
geometry as taught in our schools at the present time. Ptolemy
himself was his pupil. The royal student, however, seems to have
disliked the severe application required to master the problems of
Euclid, and asked his teacher if there was not some easier way.
Euclid replied, " There is no royal road to geometry."

In the third century B.C., Syracuse, in Sicily, was the home of
Archimedes, the greatest mathematician that the Grecian world
produced. He had a marvellous genius for figures, and investi-
gated the abstrusest problems in geometry, mechanics, and the
allied sciences. The range and productiveness of his genius are
shown by the following titles to some of his works : On Bodies
Floating in Fluids ; On Centres of Gravity ; On the Sphere and
the Cylinder.

His acquaintance with the first subject is illustrated by the fa-
miliar story that is told of the manner in which he detected the
impurity of the gold in the crown of Hiero, king of Syracuse.
The king, suspecting that the gold had been alloyed, submitted
the article to Archimedes, who detected the fraud by means of the
principle of specific gravities, which was suggested to him while

192 ASTRONOMY AND GEOGRAPHY.

bathing. Leaping from the bath, he ran through the corridors,
tyicXdSmmg, '' Eureka ! Eureka/'' — "I have found it! I have
found it ! "

His knowledge of the second subject and of the laws of the
lever is indicated by the oftjquoted boast that he made to Hiero :
" Give me a place to stand, and I will move the world." His
elucidation of the properties of the sphere and cylinder were, even
in his own estimation, so important that he requested that a figure
of these should be placed, as the fittest memorial of his life, upon
his tomb. More than one hundred years afterwards Cicero dis-
covered and identified the monument by means of these emblems.

During the siege of Syracuse by the Romans, Archimedes ren-
dered his native city valuable service by driving off or destroying
the enemy's vessels by means of ingenious and powerful engines.
The story of his setting fire to the Roman ships by means of
mirrors reflecting the sun's rays, is, after much discussion, allowed
to be not only possible, but probable. Archimedes perished in
the sack of the city (212 B.C.), but in what way he met his death
is not known with certainty.

Astronomy and Geography. — Among ancient Greek astrono-
mers and geographers, the names of Aristarchus, Eratosthenes,
Hipparchus, Strabo, Pausanias, and Claudius Ptolemy are distin-
guished.

Aristarchus of Samos, who lived in the third century B.C., held
that the earth revolves about the sun as a fixed center, and rotates
on its own axis. He was the Greek Copernicus. But his theory
was rejected by his contemporaries and successors.

Eratosthenes (b. about 276 B.C.) might be called an astronomi-
cal geographer. His greatest achievement was the fairly accurate
determination of the circumference of the earth by means of the
different lengths of the shadow cast by the midday sun in Upper
and Lower Egypt at the time of the summer solstice.

Hipparchus, who flourished about the middle of the second
century b.c, was, through his careful observations, the real founder
of scientific astronomy. He calculated eclipses, observed the

GREEK PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 193

precession of the equinoxes, catalogued the stars, and wrote sev-
eral astronomical works of a really scientific character.

Strabo was born about half a century before our era. He trav-
elled over a large part of the world, and describes, as an eye-
witness, the scenery, the productions, and the peoples of all the
countries known to the ancients.

About two centuries after Strabo's time, Pausanias wrote his
"Tour of Greece," a sort of guide-book, which is crowded with
invaluable little items of interest respecting all the places best
worth visiting in Greece.

Claudius Ptolemy, the most noted of ancient astronomers, lived
in Egypt about the middle of the second century after Christ.
His great reputation is due not so much to his superior genius as
to the fortunate circumstance that a vast work^ compiled by him,
preserved and transmitted to later times almost all the knowledge
of the ancient world on astronomical and geographical subjects.
In this way it has happened that his name has become attached
to various doctrines and views respecting the universe, though
these probably were not originated by him. The phrase Ptolemaic
system, however, links his name inseparably, whether the honor be
fairly his or not, with that conception of the solar system set forth
in his works, which continued to be the received theory from his
time until Copernicus — fourteen centuries later.

Ptolemy combated the theory of Aristarchus in regard to the
rotation and revolution of the earth ; yet he believed the earth to
be a globe, and supported this view by exactly the same argu-
ments that we to-day use to prove the doctrine.

Medicine and Anatomy. — Hippocrates (b. about 460 b.c),
the founder of a school of medicine at Cos, did so much to eman-
cipate the art of healing from superstition and ignorance, and to
make it a scientific study, that he is called the " Father of Medi-
cine."^ His central doctrine was that there are laws of disease

1 Known to Mediaeval Europe by its Arabian title Almagest, meaning " the
greatest."

^ The patron god of medicine was /Esculapius.

194 MEDICINE AND ANATOMY.

as well as laws of healthy life. The works ascribed to him form
the basis of modern medical science.

The most noted Greek physician after Hippocrates was Galenas
Claudius, or simply Galen (about a.d. 130-193). He wrote a
nmltitude of books, which gathered up all the medical and ana-
tomical knowledge of his time, and which were greatly prized and
carefully studied by the medical students of the Middle Ages.

The advance of the science of anatomy among the ancient
Greeks was hindered by their feelings respecting the body, which
caused them to look with horror upon its deliberate mutilation.
Surprising as the statement may appear, it is nevertheless true that
Aristotle, " the greatest of all thinkers in antiquity, the son of a
physician, especially educated in physical science, and well ac-
quainted for the time with the dissection of animals, regarded the
brain as a lump of cold substance, quite unfit to be the seat and
organ of the sensus communis} This important ofifice he ascribed
rather to the heart. The brain he considered to be chiefly useful
as the source of fluids for lubricating the eyes, etc."- At Alex-
andria, however, in the later period, under the influence doubtless
of Egyptian practices in embalming, the Greek physicians greatly
promoted the knowledge of anatomy not only by the dissection of
dead bodies, but even by the vivisection of criminals condemned
to death.^

1 The thinking faculty, the mind.

2 Ladd's Elements of Physiological Psychology, p. 240.

8 Some practices among the Greek physicians strike us as peculiar. The
following is too characteristically Greek to be omitted. Plato, in the Gorgias,
tells us that sometimes the doctor took a Sophist along with him to persuade
the patient to take his prescription. Professor MahaiTy comments thus upon
this practice : " This was done because it was the fashion to discuss every-
thing in Greece, and people were not satisfied to submit silently to anybody's
prescription, either in law, politics, religion, or medicine."

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. 195

CHAPTER XIII.

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS.

Education. — Education at Sparta, where it was chiefly gymnas-
tic, as we have seen, was a state affair ; but at Athens and through-
out Greece generally, the youth were trained in private schools.
These schools were of all grades, ranging from those kept by the
most obscure teachers, who gathered their pupils in some recess
of the street, to those established in the Athenian Academy and
Lyceum by such philosophers as Plato and Aristotle.

It was only the boys who received education. These Grecian
boys, Professor Mahaffy imagines, were " the most attractive the
world has ever seen." At all events, we may believe that they
were trained more carefully and delicately than the youth among
any other people before or since the days of Hellenic culture.

In the nursery, the boy was taught the beautiful myths and
stories of the national mythology and religion.^ At about seven

1 At the birth of a child, many customs of a significant character were
carefully observed. Thus at Sparta the new-born infant was first cradled on a
shield, which symbolized the martial life of the Spartan citizen; while at
Athens the child was laid upon a mantle in which was wrought the aegis of
Athena, by which act was emblemized and invoked the protection of that
patron goddess. Infanticide was almost universally practised throughout
Greece. (At Thebes, however, the exposure of children was prohibited by
severe laws.) Such philosophers as Plato and Aristotle saw nothing in the
custom to condemn. Among the Spartans, as we have already learned, the
state determined what infants might be preserved, condemning the weakly or
ill-formed to be cast out to die. At Athens and in other states the right to
expose his child was given to the father. The infant was abandoned in some
desert place, or left in some frequented spot in the hope that it might be
picked up and cared for. Greek literature, like that of every other people of
antiquity, is filled with stories and dramas all turning upon points afforded

196 EDUCATION.

he entered school, being led to and from the place of training by
an old slave, who bore the name of pedagogue, which in Greek
means a guide or leader of boys — not a teacher. His studies
were grammar, music, and gymnastics, the aim of the course being
to secure a symmetrical development of mind and body alike.

Grammar included reading, writing, and arithmetic ; music,
which embraced a wide range of mental accomplishments, trained
the boy to appreciate the masterpieces of the great poets, to con-
tribute his part to the musical diversions of private entertain-

A GREEK SCHOOL. (After a vase-painting.)

ments, and to join in the sacred choruses and in the psean of
the battle-field. The exercises of the palestrae and the gymnasia
trained him for the Olympic contests, or for those sterner hand-
to-hand battle-struggles, in which so much depended upon per-
sonal strength and dexterity.

Upon reaching maturity, the youth was enrolled in the list of
citizens. But his graduation from school was his "commence-
ment " in a much more real sense than with the average modern

by this common practice. The career of Sargon of Agade, of Cyrus the Great
of Persia, of the Hebrew Moses, of CEdipus of Thebes, of Romulus and Remus
of Roman legend, and a hundred others, are all prefaced by the same story o£
exposure and fortunate rescue.

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. 197

graduate. Never was there a people besides the Greeks whose
daily life was so emphatically a discipline in liberal culture. The
schools of the philosophers, the debates of the popular assembly,
the practice of the law-courts, the masterpieces of a divine art,
the religious processions, the representations of an unrivalled
stage, the Panhellenic games — all these were splendid and effi-
cient educational agencies, which produced and maintained a
standard of average intelligence and culture among the citizens
of the Greek cities that probably has never been attained among
any other people on the earth. Freeman, quoted approvingly by
Mahaffy, says that " the average intelligence of the assembled
Athenian citizens was higher than that of our [the English]
House of Commons."

Social Position of Woman. — Although there are in Greek
literature some exquisitely beautiful portraitures of ideal woman-
hood, still the general tone of the literature betrays a deep con-
tempt for woman, which Symonds regards as " the greatest social
blot upon the brilliant but imperfect civilization of the Greeks."
The poets are particularly sarcastic. Simonides winds up a bitter
invective against women in general, in which he compares differ-
ent classes of them to various despicable animals, by saying,
" Zeus made this supreme evil — women : even though they
seem to be of good, when one has got one, she becomes a
plague." And another poet (Hipponax) says, " A woman gives
two days of happiness to man — her bridal and her burial."
Plato does not entertain a high opinion of the sex, while Thu-
cydides quotes with seeming approval the Greek proverb, — " That
woman is best who is least spoken of among men, whether for
good or for evil."

The myth of Pandora seems to have sprung up out of just such
sentiments as the above. This fable evidently reacted upon the
feelings and practices of the Greeks, just as the Oriental story of
the Fall of Man through the temptation of Eve contributed to
the giving of woman a position of inferiority and subjection in the
early Christian church.

198 FRIENDSHIP AMONG THE GREEKS.

This unworthy conception of woman of course consigned her to
a narrow and inferior place in the Greek home. Her position
may be defined as being about halfway between Oriental seclu-
sion and modern or Western freedom. Her main duties were to
cook and spin, and to oversee the domestic slaves, of whom she
herself was practically one. In the fashionable society of Ionian
cities, she was seldom allowed to appear in public, or to meet,
even in her own house, the male friends of her husband. In
Sparta, however, and in Dorian states generally, she was accorded
unusual freedom, and was a really important factor in society.

The seclusion and neglect to which women were condemned
in Ionian communities, in contrast with the great liberty enjoyed
by women in the Dorian cities, is doubtless to be attributed, in
part at least, to the influence upon the former of Asiatic custom,
entering Greece through Ionia.

The low position generally assigned the wife in the home had a
most disastrous effect upon Greek morals. She could exert no
such elevating or refining influence as she casts over the modern
home. The men were led to seek social and intellectual sym-
pathy and companionship outside the family circle, among a class
of talented and often highly cultured women, known as Hetairae.
As the most noted and brilliant representative of this class stands
Aspasia, the friend of Pericles. Her conversation possessed at-
traction for the most prominent and accomplished men of Athens,
such persons as Socrates and Anaxagoras often assembling at her
house. Yet the influence of this class was most harmful to social
morality, so that to the degradation of woman in the home may
be traced the source of the most serious stain that rests upon
Greek civilization.

Friendship among the Greeks. — From speaking of the infe-
rior rank assigned woman in the Greek home, we are led by a
natural transition to speak of Greek friendship between men.
While it seems quite certain that that romantic sentiment to which
we give distinctively the name of love, was not the universal and
absorbing passion among the Greeks that it is among modern

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. 199

civilized peoples, it is equally certain that the ancient Greeks
possessed a capacity for friendship between man and man such as
is rarely or never seen among the men of modern times. It
would scarcely be incorrect to say that the Greek men " fell in
love " with each other. An ardent and romantic attachment
sprang up between companions, which possessed all the higher
elements of that chivalrous sentiment which the modem man
seems capable of entertaining only for one of the opposite sex.
"The chivalry of Hellas found its motive force," writes Symonds,
" in friendship rather than in the love of woman. . . . Fraternity
in arms played for the Greek race the same part as the idealiza-
tion of woman for the knighthood of Feudal Europe."

Greek literature and history afford innumerable instances of
this wonderful and happy capacity of the Greeks for friendship.
The memory easily recalls the Homeric picture of the friendship
between Achilles and Patroclus ; the attachment, stronger than
death, between Damon and Pythias ; the friendship of the patriot
heroes Pelopidas and Epaminondas, of Alexander and Hephses-
tion ; and the attachments that united, in bonds dissolvable only
by death, the members of the Sacred Band of Thebes.

Theatrical Entertainments. — Among the ancient Greeks the
theatre was a state establishment, "a part of the constitution."
This arose from the religious origin and character of the drama
(see p. 1 60), all matters pertaining to the popular worship being
the care and concern of the state. Theatrical performances, be-
ing rehgious acts, were presented only during religious festivals,
— certain festivals observed in honor of Dionysus, — and were
attended by all classes, rich and poor, men, women, and children.
The women, however, except the Hetairse, were, it would seem,
permitted to witness tragedies only; the comic stage was too
gross to allow of their presence.

The upper ranges of seats in the theatre were reserved for the
women ; the chairs bordering the orchestra were for the officers
of the state and other persons of distinction ; while the interven-
ing tiers of seats were occupied by the general audience. The

200 THEATRICAL ENTERTAINMENTS.

spectators sat under the open sky ; and the pieces followed one
after the other in close succession from early morning till night-
fall.

There were companies of players who strolled about the coun-
try, just as the English actors of Shakespeare's time were wont to
do. Such bands often accompanied the army to the field in time
of war. While the better class of actors were highly honored,
ordinary players were held in very low es-
teem, in which matter the Greek stage
presents another parallel to that of England
in the sixteenth century. And as in the
Elizabethan age the writers of plays wire
frequently also performers, so in Greece,
particularly during the early period of the
drama, the author often became an actor,
and assisted in the presentation of his own
pieces. Still another parallel is found in the
fact that the female parts in the Greek
dramas, as in the early English theatre,
were taken by men.

The stage machinery of the Greek theatre
and the costumes of the actors were ingen-
ious and elaborate. There were movable
scenes ; trap-doors and various machines for
introducing the infernal and celestial di-
vinities and swinging them through the air ;
contrivances for imitating all the familiar

sounds of the country, the roar and crash of ^^^^^ ^^^q,^ ^^^^^^^
storm and thunder, and all the noises that

are counterfeited on the modern stage. The tragic actor increased
his height and size by wearing thick-soled buskins, an enormous
mask, and padded garments. The actor in comedy wore thin-
soled slippers, or socks. The sock being thus a characteristic
part of the make-up of the ancient comic actor, and the buskin
that of the tragic actor, these foot-coverings have come to be used

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. 201

as the symbols respectively of comedy and tragedy, as in the
familiar lines of Dryden : —

" Great Fletcher never treads in buskins here,
Nor greater Jonson dares in socks appear."

The chorus were often gorgeously and fantastically costumed.
Thus in the play of the " Birds " by Aristophanes, they were arrayed
each to represent some gay-plumaged bird ; while in the "Clouds,"
by the same poet, to counterfeit clouds they appeared in the
midst of fleecy drapery, and enveloped in the smoke of incense.
By similar devices of drapery and masks, all the divinities and
monsters known to Greek mythology were brought before the
spectators.

The expenses of the choruses were defrayed by rich citizens,
who at Athens were chosen by the different tribes in turn. The
person elected to provide the chorus was known as the choragus.
He often spent large sums in competition with other leaders.
The choragus who presented the best chorus was awarded a prize,
and was allowed the privilege of erecting, at his own expense, a
monument in commemoration of his victory (see page 142. choragic
monument of Lysicrates) .

The theatre exerted a great influence upon Greek life. It per-
formed for ancient Greek society somewhat the same service as
that rendered to modern society by the pulpit and the press.
During the best days of Hellas the frequent rehearsal upon the
stage of the chief incidents in the lives of the gods and the heroes
served to deepen and strengthen the religious faith of the people ;
and later, when with the Macedonian the days of decline came, it
was one of the chief agents in the diffusion of Greek literary cul-
ture over the world. Theatres arose everywhere, and it was chiefly
through the popular representations of the stage that a knowledge
of the best productions of Greek literature was imparted to the
mixed population of the Hellenistic cities of Egypt and Western
Asia, and to the inhabitants of the cities of Italy as well.

Banquets and Symposia. — Banquets and drinking-parties

202 BANQUETS AND SYMPOSIA.

among the Greeks possessed some features which set them apart
from similar entertainment among other people.

The banquet proper was partaken, in later times, by the guest
in a reclining position, upon couches or divans, arranged about
the table in the Oriental manner. After the usual courses, a liba-
tion was poured out and a hymn sung in honor of the gods, and
then followed that characteristic part of the entertainment known
as the symposium.

The symposium was " the intellectual side of the feast." It
consisted of general conversation, riddles, and convivial songs ren-
dered to the accompaniment of the lyre passed from hand to
hand. Generally professional singers and musicians, dancing-girls,
jugglers, and jesters, were called in to contribute to the merry-
making. All the while the wine-bowl circulated freely, the rule
being that a man might drink " as much as he could carry home
without a guide, — unless he were far gone in years." Here also
the Greeks applied their maxim, " Never too much." Besotted
drunkenness, though by no means unknown in Greece, was al-
ways regarded as a most disgraceful thing.

The banqueters usually consumed the night in merry-making,
sometimes being broken in upon from the street by other bands
of revellers, who made themselves self-invited guests.

The symposium must at times, when the conversation was sus-
tained by such persons as Socrates and Aristophanes, have been
"a feast of reason and a flow of soul " indeed. Xenophon in his
" Banquet " and Plato in his " Symposium " have each left us a
striking report of such an entertainment.

Occupations. — The enormous body of slaves in ancient Greece
(see next paragraph) relieved the free population from most of
those forms of labor classed as drudgery. The aesthetic Greek
regarded as degrading any kind of manual labor that marred the
symmetry or beauty of the body.

At Sparta, and in other states where oligarchical constitutions
prevailed, the citizens formed a sort of military caste, strikingly
similar to the military aristocracy of Feudal Europe. Their chief

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. 203

occupation was martial and gymnastic exercises and the adminis-
tration of public affairs. The Spartans, it will be recalled, were
forbidden by law to engage in trade. In other aristocratic states,
as at Thebes, a man by engaging in trade disqualified himself for
full citizenship.

In the democratic states, however, speaking generally, labor
and trade were regarded with less contempt. A considerable por-
tion of the citizens were traders, artisans, and farmers.

Life at Athens presented some peculiar features. All Attica
being included in what we would term the corporate limits of the
city, the roll of Athenian citizens included a large body of well-to-
do farmers, whose residence was outside the city walls. The Attic
plains, and the slopes of the half-encircUng hills, were dotted with
beautiful villas and inviting farmhouses. " It is probable," says a
well-known student of Greek life, in speaking of the appearance
of the country about Athens just before the Peloponnesian War,
"that as a scene of unambitious affluence, taste, high cultivation,
and rustic contentment, nothing was ever beheld to compare with
Attica." ^

And then Athens being the head of a great empire of subject
cities, a large number of Athenian citizens were necessarily em-
ployed as salaried officials in the minor positions of the public
service, and thus politics became a profession. In any event,
the meetings of the popular assembly and the discussion of mat-
ters of state engrossed more or less of the time and attention of
every citizen.

Again, the great Athenian jury-courts, which were busied with
cases from all parts of the empire, gave constant employment to
nearly one-fourth of the citizens, the fee that the juryman received
enabling him to live without other business. It is said that, in the
early morning, when the jurymen were passing through the streets
to the different courts, Athens appeared like a city wholly given up
to the single business of law. Furthermore, the great public
works, such as temples and commemorative monuments, which
* St. John, History of the Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece.

204 SLAVERY.

were in constant process of erection, afforded employment for a
vast number of artists and skilled workmen of every class.

In the Agora, again, at any time of the day, a numerous class
might have been found whose sole occupation, as in the case of
Socrates, was to talk. The writer of the " Acts of the Apostles "
was so impressed with this feature of life at Athens that he sum-
marized the habits of the people by saying, " All the Athenians
and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else
but either to tell or to hear some new thing."

Slavery. — There is a dark side to Greek life. Hellenic art,
culture, refinement — " these good things were planted, like ex-
quisite exotic flowers, upon the black, rank soil of slavery."

The proportion of slaves to the free population in many of the
states was astonishingly large. In Corinth and ^gina there were
ten slaves to every freeman. In Attica the proportion was four to
one ; that is to say, out of a population of about 500,000, 400,000
were slaves.^ Almost every freeman was a slave owner. It was
accounted a real hardship to have to get along with less than half
a dozen slaves.

This large class of slaves was formed in various ways. In the
prehistoric period, the fortunes of war had brought the entire
population of whole provinces into a servile condition, as in cer-
tain parts of the Peloponnesus. ■ During later times, the ordinary
captives of war still further augmented the ranks of these unfor-
tunates. Their number was also largely added to by the slave
traffic carried on with the barbarian peoples of Asia Minor. Crimi-
nals and debtors, too, were often condemned to servitude ; while
foundlings were usually brought up as slaves.

The relation of master and slave was regarded by the Greek
as being, not only a legal, but a natural one. A free community,
in his view, could not exist without slavery, it formed the nat-
ural basis of both the family and the state, — the relation of master
and slave being regarded as " stricdy analogous to the relation of

1 The population of Attica in 317 B.C. is reckoned at about 527,000. That
of Athens in its best days was probably not far from 150,000.

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GREEKS. . 205

soul and body." Even Aristotle and other Greek philosophers
approved the maxim that " slaves were simply domestic animals
possessed of intelligence." ' They were regarded just as necessary
in the economy of the family as cooking utensils.

In general, Greek slaves were not treated harshly — judging
their treatment by the standard of humanity that prevailed in
antiquity. Some held places of honor in the family, and enjoyed
the confidence and even the friendship of their master. Yet at
Sparta, where slavery assumed the form of serfdom, the lot of the
slave was peculiarly hard and unendurable. Even at Athens we
hear much, in connection with the state silver mines at Laurium
(in southern Attica), of a labor contract-system which certainly
was characterized by much callousness of feeling towards the
slave, if we may judge from the conditions of the usual agree-
ment, which bound the contractor to pay an annual rental equal
to one-half the value of the slave (which implies that the poor
creatures were worn out rapidly), and at the expiration of the
contract to return to the owner simply the same number of slaves
as had been hired.

If ever slavery was justified by its fruits, it was in Greece. The
brilliant civilization of the Greeks was its product, and could never
have existed without it. As one truthfully says, " Without the
slaves the Attic democracy would have been an impossibility, for
they alone enabled the poor, as well as the rich, to take a part in
public affairs." Relieving the citizen of all drudgery, the system
created a class characterized by elegant leisure, refinement, and
culture.

1 This harsh, selfish theory, it should be noted, was somewhat modified and
relaxed, when the slave class, through the numerous captives of the unfortu-
nate civil wars, came to be made up in considerable part of cultured Greeks,
instead of being, as was the case in earlier times, composed almost exclusively
of barbarians, or of inferior branches of the Hellenic race, between whom and
their cultured masters there was the same difference in mental qualities as ex-
isted between the negro slaves and their masters in our own country. The
sentiment that a slave was an unfortunate person, rather than an inferior being,
came to prevail — a sentiment which aided powerfully in preparing the way
for the Christian doctrine of the universal brotherhood of man.

206 SLAVERY.

We find an almost exact historical parallel to all this in the
feudal aristocracy of Mediaeval Europe. Such a society has been
well likened to a great pyramid, whose top may be gilded with
light, while its base lies in dark shadows. The civilization of
ancient Hellas was splendid and attractive, but it rested with a
crushing weight upon all the lower orders of Greek society.

HISTORY OF ROME.
CHAPTER I.

THE ROMAN KINGDOM,

(Legendary date, 753-509 b.c.)

Divisions of Italy. — The peninsula of Italy divides itself into
three parts, — Northern, Central, and Southern Italy, The first
comprises the great basin of the Po, lying between the Alps and
the Apennines.^ In ancient times this part of Italy included three
districts, — Liguria, Gallia Cisalpina, and Venetia. The first em-
braced the southwestern and the last the northeastern part of
Northern Italy. Gallia Cisalpina lay between these two districts,
occupying the finest portion of the valley of the Po, It received
its name, which means " Gaul on this (the Italian) side of the
Alps," from the Gallic tribes that about the fifth century before
our era found their way over the mountains and settled upon these
rich lands.

The countries of Central Italy were Etruria, Latium, and Cam-
pania, facing the Western, or Tuscan Sea ; Umbria and Picenum,
looking out over the Eastern, or Adriatic Sea ; and Samnium and
the country of the Sabines, occupying the rough mountain districts
of the Apennines.

Southern Italy comprised the districts of Apulia, Lucania.
Calabria, and Bruttium, Calabria formed the " heel," and Brut-
tium the " toe," of the peninsula. The coast region of Southern
Italy, as we have already learned, was called Magna Graecia, or

1 It should be noted that the Italy of early times did not embrace the north-
em part of the peninsula.

^ [207]

208 THE ROMAN KINGDOM.

" Great Greece," on account of the number and importance of the
Greek cities that during the period of Hellenic supremacy were
established on these shores.

The large island of Sicily, lying just off the mainland on the
south, may be regarded simply as a detached fragment of Italy,
so intimately has its destiny been connected with that of the penin-
sula„ In ancient times it was the meeting-place and battle-ground
of the Carthaginians, the Greeks, and the Romans.

Mountains and Rivers. — Italy, like the other two peninsulas
of Southern Europe, Greece and Spain, has a high mountain bar-
rier, the Alps, along its northern frontier. Cicero once said that
the gods had raised this wall to protect the peninsula from the
northern barbarians. If such was the purpose of the celestial
mountain-builders, it was a strange oversight on their part that
they should have left a great gap in the Eastern, or Julian Alps ;
for here is a low pass, through which the barbarians, as we shall
see, often poured like a devastating flood into Italy.

Corresponding to the Pindus range in Greece, the Apennines
run as a great central ridge through the entire length of the pen-
insula.

Italy has only one really great river, the Po {Fadus), which
drains the large northern valley lying between the Alps and the
Apennines. The streams running down the eastern slope of the
Apennines are short and of little volume. Among them the Rubi-
con, the Metaurus, and the Aufidus are connected with great
matters of history. Into the Rubicon it was that Csesar plunged
when he cast the die for the empire of the world ; upon the
Metaurus, Hasdrubal, the brother of Hannibal, was defeated in
the Second Punic War; and on the banks of the Aufidus was
fought the great battle of Cannae.

Among the rivers draining the western slopes of the Apennines,
the one possessing the greatest historic interest is the Tiber, on
the banks of which Rome arose. North of this stream is the
Amo {Arnus) , ^M\i\c\i watered a part of the old Etruria; and
south of it, the Liris, one of the chief rivers of Campania.

EARLY INHABITANTS OF ITALY. 209

Early Inhabitants of Italy, — There were, in early times, three
chief races in Italy, — the Italians, the Etruscans, and the Greeks.^
The Italians, a branch of the Aryan family, embraced t\vo principal
stocks, — the Latin and the Umbro-Sabellian (Umbrians, Sablnes,
Samnites, Lucanians, etc.), — the various tribes or nations of which
occupied nearly all Central, and a considerable part of Southern,
Italy. The Etruscans, a wealthy, cultured, and maritime people of
uncertain race, dwelt in Etruria, now Tuscany. They here formed
a league of twelve cities, and before the rise of the Roman people
were the leading race in the peninsula. Numerous works of art
— such as tombs, fragments of walls, massive dikes to keep back
the sea, and long tunnels piercing the sides of hills to drain the
lakes lying in the craters of extinct volcanoes — show the advance
in civilization they had made at a very remote date.

Some five hundred years B.C. the Gauls came over the Alps,
pressed the Etrurians out of Northern Italy, into which quarter
they had extended their power, and settling in those regions,
became the most formidable enemies of the infant republic of
Rome. Of the establishment of the Greek cities in Southern
Italy we have already learned in connection with Grecian history.

The Latins. — Most important of all the Italian peoples were
the Latins, who dwelt in Latium, between the Tiber and the Liris.
These people, like all the Italians, were near kindred of the Greeks,
and brought with them into Italy all those customs, manners,
beliefs, and institutions that we have seen to have been the
common possession of the various branches of the Arian house-
hold. ^ Their life was, for the most part, that of shepherds and
farmers. There are said to have been in Latium in early times
thirty towns, which formed an alliance known as the Latin League.
The city which first assumed importance and leadership among
the towns of this confederation was Alba Longa, the " Long White

^Besides these principal races there were the lapygians in Calabria, and the
Venetians and the Ligurians in the north of the peninsula. The Ligurians
were of non- Arian race, but the others were seemingly of Arian relationship.

*See Hi^h School English Grammar, pp. lo, II,

210 THE ROMAN KINGDOM.

City," so called because its buildings stretched for a great distance
along the summit of a whitish ridge.

The Beginnings of Rome. — The place of pre-eminence among
the Latin towns was soon lost by Alba Longa, and gained by
another city. This was Rome, the stronghold of the Ramnes, or
Romans, located upon a low hill on the south bank of the Tiber,
about fifteen miles from the sea.

The traditions of the Romans place the founding of their city
in the year 753 B.C. The town was established, it would seem,
as an outpost to guard the northern frontier of Latium against the
Etruscans.

Recent excavations have revealed the foundations of the old
walls and two of the ancient gates. We thus learn that the city
at first covered only the top of the Palatine Hill, one of a cluster
of low eminences close to the Tiber, which, finally embraced
within the limits of the growing city, became the famed "Seven
Hills of Rome." From the shape of its enclosing walls, the origi-
nal city was called Roma Quadrata, or " Square Rome."

The Early Roman State : King, Senate, and Popular Assem-
bly. — The early Roman state seems to have been formed by the
union of three communities.^ These constituted three tribes,
known as Ramnes (the Romans proper, who gave name to the
mixed people). Titles, and Luceres. Each of these tribes was
divided into ten wards, or districts {curia:) ; each ward was
made up of gentes, or clans, and each clan was composed of a
number of families. The heads of these families were called
patres, or " fathers," and all the members patricians ; that is,
" children of the fathers."

At the head of the nation stood the King, who was the father
of the state. He was at once ruler of the people, commander of

1 Compare the beginning of Rome with that of Athens, History of Greece,
p. 49: "The synoikisfHos [union of several communities, as in the present
case] did not necessarily involve an actual settlement together at one spot ; but
while each resided as formerly on his own land, there was thenceforth only one
council-hall and court-house for the whole." — MoMMSEN,

CLASSES OF SOCIETY. 211

the army, judge and high priest of the nation, with absolute power
as to life and death.

Next to the king stood the Senate, or " council of the old men,"
composed of the " fathers," or heads of the families. This coun-
cil had no power to enact laws : the duty of its members was
simply to advise with the king, who was free to follow or to disre-
gard their suggestions.

The Popular Assembly {comitia airiata) comprised all the citi-
zens of Rome ; that is, all the members of the patrician families
old enough to bear arms. It was this body that enacted the laws
of the state, determined upon peace or war, and also elected the
king.

Classes of Society. — The two important classes of the popu-
lation of Rome under the kingdom and the early republic were
the patricians and the plebeians. The former were the members
of the three original tribes that made up the Roman people, and
at first alone possessed political rights. They were proud, exclu-
sive, and tenacious of their inherited privileges. The latter were
made up chiefly of the inhabitants of subjected cities, and of refu-
gees from various quarters that had sought an asylum at Rome.
They were free to acquire property, and enjoyed personal freedom,
but at first had no political rights whatever. The greater number
were petty land-owners, who held and cultivated the soil about the
city. A large part of the early history of Rome is simply the
narration of the struggles of this class to secure social and political
equality with the patricians.

Besides these two principal orders, there were two other classes,
— clients and slaves. The former were attached to the families
of patricians, who became their patrons, or protectors. The con-
dition of the cUent was somewhat like that of the serf in the feudal
system of the Middle Ages. A large clientage was considered the
crown and glory of a patrician house.

The slaves were, in the main, captives in war. Their number,
small at first, gradually increased as the Romans extended their
conquests, till they outnumbered all the other classes taken to-

212 THE ROMAN KINGDOM.

gether, and more than once turned upon their masters in formi-
dable revolts that threatened the very existence of the Roman
state.

The Legendary Kings. — For nearly two and a half centuries
after the founding of Rome (from 753 to 509 B.C., according to
tradition) , the government was a monarchy. To span this period,
the legends of the Romans tell of the reigns of seven kings, —
Romulus, the founder of Rome ; Numa, the lawgiver j TuUus
Hostilius and Ancus Marcius, conquerors both ; Tarquinius Priscus,
the great builder ; Servius Tullius, the reorganizer of the govern-
ment and second founder of the state ; and Tarquinius Superbus,
the haughty tyrant, whose oppressions led to the abolition by the
people of the office of king.

The traditions of the doings of these monarchs and of what
happened to them blend hopelessly fact and fable. We cannot
be quite sure even as to their names. Respecting Roman affairs,
however, under the last three rulers (the Tarquins), who were of
Etruscan origin, some important things are related, the substantial
truth of which we may rely upon with a fair degree of certainty ;
and these matters we shall notice in the following paragraphs.

Growth of Rome under the Tarquins. — The Tarquins extended
their authority over the whole of Latium. The position of suprem-
acy thus given Rome was naturally attended by the rapid growth
in population and importance of the little Palatine city.^ The

^ Several causes have been assigned to account for the early and rapid
growth of the power of Rome. Its situation upon the Tiber was, without
doubt, favorable to its early development as a centre of trade and commerce;
while its distance from the sea protected it from the depredations of the
pirates, which in early times swarmed in the Mediterranean and desolated the
coast cities. But most potent of all influences in shaping the fortunes and
character of the inhabitants of the little Palatine town was the necessity
which they found themselves under to form some sort of social and political
connection with the neighboring communities that held possession of the hills
immediately about them. The early circumstances of the national life would
thus seem to have given a certain legal and political bias to that Roman genius
^\(i(^ wjis destined to give laws to the world,

GROWTH OF ROME.

213

original walls soon became too strait for the increasing multitudes ;
new ramparts were built — tradition says under the direction of
the king Servius TuUius — which, with a great circuit of seven
miles, swept around the entire cluster of the Seven Hills. A large
tract of marshy ground between the Palatine and Capitoline hills
was drained by means of the Cloaca Maxima, the " Great Sewer,"
which was so admirably constructed that it has been preserved to
the present day. It still discharges its waters through a great
arch into the Tiber. The land thus reclaimed became the Forum,

.,^,, ^, ,,,^ ..„, ,,^^,,.^, ..'ITH THE CLOACA MAXIMA. ^A KcCo,,.;.„v.;,„,..,

the assembling-place of the people. At one angle of this public
square, as we should term it, was the Comitium, an enclosure
where the assemblies of the patricians were held. Standing upon
this slightly elevated ground, and so placed that the speaker could
address both the plebeians in the Fomm and the patricians in the
Comitium, was the rostrum,^ or stand, from which the Roman

1 Called by the Romans the Rostra. It was so named because decorated
with the beaks (rosti-a) of war-galleys taken from enemies.

214

THE ROMAN KINGDOM.

orators delivered their addresses. This assembling-place in later
times was enlarged and decorated with various monuments and
surrounded with splendid buildings and porticoes. Here more was
said, resolved upon, and done, than upon any other spot in the
ancient world.

The Senate-house occupied one side of the Forum j and facing
this on the opposite side were the Temple of Vesta and the palace

»*^'.

1. ROMA QUADRATA
THE CITY ofROH^LUS

2. THE SABINE CitV
3.THEC0MITIUM

THE WALLS OF
'SERVIUS TULLIUS

#1

^#^
v*"*^

/

$%J'

^ Coeltus

y

TfOME uNoe/f rnc KINGS.

of the king. Overlooking all from the summit of the Capitoline
was the famous sanctuary called the Capitol, or the Capitoline
Temple, where beneath the same roof were the shrines of Jupiter,
Juno, and Minerva, the three great national deities»

Upon the level ground between the Aventine and the Palatine
was located the Circus Maximus, the " Great Ci.-cle," where were
celebrated the Roman games. The most noted of the streets of

CONSTITUTION OF SERVIUS TULLIUS. 215

Rome was the Via Sacra, or " Sacred Way," which traversed the
Forum and led up the CapitoUne Hill to the temple of Jupiter.
This was the street along which passed the triumphal processions
of the Roman conquerors.

New Constitntion of Servius Tullius. — The second king of the
Etruscan house, Servius Tullius by name, effected a most impor-
tant change in the constitution of the Roman state. He did here
at Rome just what Solon at about this time did at Athens.^ He
made property instead of birth the basis of the constitution.
The entire population was divided into five classes, the first of
which included all citizens, whether patricians or plebeians, who
owned twenty Jugera (about twelve acres) of land ; the fifth and
lowest embraced all that could show title to even two jugera. The
army was made up of the members of the five classes ; as it was
thought right and proper that the public defence should be the
care of those who, on account of their possessions, were most in-
terested in the maintenance of order and in the protection of the
frontiers of the state.

The assembling-place of the military classes thus organized was
on a large plain just outside the city walls, called the Campus
Martius, or " Field of Mars," The meeting of these military
orders was called the comitia centtinata, or the " assembly of
hundreds." ^ This body, which of course was made up of patri-
cians and plebeians, gradually absorbed the powers of the earlier
patrician assembly {comitia curiatd).

The reforms of Servius Tullius were an important step towards
the establishment of social and political equality between the two
great orders of the state. The new constitution indeed, as Momm-
sen says, assigned to the plebeians duties only, and not rights :
but being called to discharge the duties of citizens, it was not
long before they demanded the rights of citizens ; and as the
bearers of arms, they were able to enforce their demands.

^ See History of Greece, p. 52.

^This assemVily was not organized by Servius Tullius, but it grew out of the
military organization he created.

21 G THE ROMAN KINGDOM.

The Expulsion of the Kings. — The legends make Tarquinius
Superbus, or Tarquin the Proud, the last king of Rome. He is
represented as a monstrous tyrant, whose arbitrary acts caused
both patricians and plebeians to unite and drive him and all his
house into exile. This event, according to tradition, occurred in
the year 509 B.C., only one year later than the expulsion of the
tyrants from Athens.^

So bitterly did the people hate the tyranny they had abolished
that it is said they all, the nobles as well as the commons, bound
themselves by most solemn oaths never again to tolerate a king,
enacting that should any one so much as express a wish for the
restoration of the monarchy, he should be considered a public
enemy, and be put to death. We shall hereafter see how well
this vow was kept for nearly five hundred years.

The Roman Religion.

Influence upon Political Affairs. — To the early Romans the
gods were very real. Hence religion had a great influence upon
the course of public events at Rome during the first centuries of
her existence. Later, when the learned had lost faith in and fear
of the gods, religion was used corruptly for political purposes.
Thus it happens that the political history of the Roman people

^ See History of Greece, p 54.

The sixth and fifth centuries B.C. in ancient history correspond politically
to the eighteenth and nineteenth in modern history. As the later period is
characterized, in the political sphere, by the substitution of democracy for
monarchy, so was the earlier era marked by the decay of monarchical and the
growth of popular forms of government. Speaking of the abolition of mon-
archy at Rome, Mommsen says : " How necessarily this was the result of the
natural development of things is strikingly demonstrated by the fact that the
same change of constitution took place in an analogous manner through
the whole circuit of the Italo-Grecian world. Not only in Rome, but like-
wise among the other Latins as well as among the Sabellians, Etruscans, and
Apulians, — in fact, in all the Italian communities, just as in those of Greece, —
we find the rulers for life of an earlier epoch superseded in after times by
annual magistrates."

THE CHIEF ROMAN DEITIES.

21'

becomes closely interwoven with their religion. Therefore, in
order to understand the transactions of the period upon which
we are about to enter, we must first acquaint ourselves with at
least the prominent features of the religious institutions and
beliefs of the Romans.

The Chief Roman Deities. — The basis of the Roman religious
system was the same as that of the Grecian : the germs of its in-
stitutions were brought from the same early Aryan home. At
the head of the P^itheon stood Jupiter, identical in all essential

HEAD OF JANUS. (From a Roman Coin.)

attributes with the Hellenic Zeus. He was the special protector
of the Roman people. To him, together with Juno and Minerva,
was consecrated, as we have already noticed, a magnificent temple
upon the summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Forum
and the city. Mars, the god of war, standing next in rank, was
the favorite deity and the fabled father of the Roman race, who
were fond of calling themselves the " Children of Mars." They
proved themselves worthy offspring of the war-god. Martial games

218

THE ROMAN KINGDOM.

and festivals were celebrated in his honor during the first month of
the Roman year, which bore, and still bears, in his honor, the name
of March. Janus was a double-faced deity, " the god of the begin-
ning and the end of everything." The month of January was sacred
to him, as were also all gates and doors. The gates of his temple
were always kept open in time of war and shut in time of peace.
The fire upon the household hearth was regarded as the symbol

of the goddess Vesta.
Her worship was a fa-
vorite one with the Ro-
mans. The nation, too,
as a single great family,
had a common national
hearth, in the Temple
of Vesta, where the sa-
cred fires were kept
burning from genera-
tion to generation by
six virgins, daughters of
the Roman state.* The
Lares and Penates were
household gods. Their
images were set in the
entrance of the dwell-
ing. The Lares were
the spirits of ancestors,
which were thought to
linger about the home
as its guardians.
The Romans, like the Greeks,
thought that the will of the gods was communicated to men by
means of oracles, and by strange sights, unusual events, or singu-

VESTAL VIRGIN.

Oracles and Divination.

1 For an interesting account of the remains of the House of the Vestals,
brought to light by recent excavations, see Lanciani's Ancient Rome in the
Light of Recent Discoveries.

THE SACRED COLLEGES. 219

lar coincidences. There were no true oracles at Rome. The
Romans, therefore, often had recourse to those in Magna Graecia,
even sending for advice, in great emergencies, to the Delphian
shrine. From Etruria was introduced the art of the haruspices,
or soothsayers, which consisted in discovering the will of the gods
by the appearance of victims slain for the sacrifices.

The Sacred Colleges. — The four chief sacred colleges, or soci-
eties, were the Keepers of the Sibylline Books, the College of
Augurs, the College of Pontiffs, and the College of the Heralds.

x\ curious legend is told of the Sibylline Books. An old woman
came to Tarquinius Superbus and offered to sell him, for an ex-
travagant price, nine volumes. As the king declined to pay the
sum demanded, the woman departed, destroyed three of the books,
and then, returning, offered the remainder at the very same sum
that she had wanted for the complete number. The king still
refused to purchase, so the sibyl went away and destroyed three
more of the volumes, and bringing back the remaining three, asked
the same price as before. Tarquin was by this time so curious
respecting the contents of the mysterious books that he purchased
the remaining volumes. It was found upon examination that they
were filled with prophecies respecting the future of the Roman
people. The books, which were written in Greek, were placed in
a stone chest, and kept in a vault beneath the Capitoline temple ;
and special custodians were appointed to take charge of them and
interpret them. The number of keepers, throughout the most
important period of Roman history, was fifteen. The books were
consulted only in times of extreme danger.

The duty of the members of the College of Augurs was to
interpret the omens, or auspices, which were casual sights or ap-
pearances, by which means it was believed that Jupiter made known
his will. Great skill was required in the " taking of the auspices,"
as it was called. No business of importance, public or private,
was entered upon without first consulting the auspices, to ascertain
whether they were favorable. The public assembly, for illustra-
tion, must not convene, to elect officers or to enact laws, unless

220 THE ROMAN KINGDOM.

the auspices had been taken and found propitious. Should a
peal of thunder occur while the people were holding a meeting,
that was considered an unfavorable omen, and the assembly must
instantly disperse.

It is easy to see how the power of the augurs might be used
corruptly for political ends. At first all the members of the col-
lege were patricians, and very frequently they would prevent the
plebeians from holding an assembly by giving out that the auspices
were not favorable ; and sometimes, when matters were not tak-
ing such a course in the popular assembly as suited the nobles,
and some measure obnoxious to their order was on the point of
being carried, they would secure an announcement from the au-
gurs that Jupiter was thundering, or manifesting his displeasure in
some other way ; and the people were obliged to break up their
meeting on the instant. One of the privileges contended for by
the plebeians was admission to this college, that they might assist
in watching the omens, and thus this important matter not be left
entirely in the hands of their enemies.

The College of Pontiffs was so called probably because one of
the duties of its members was to keep in repair the Bridge {pons)
of Piles over the Tiber,^ This was the most important of all the
religious institutions of the Romans ; for to the pontiffs belonged
the superintendence of all religious matters. In their keeping,
too, was the calendar, and they could lengthen or shorten the
year, which power they sometimes used to extend the office of a
favorite or to cut short that of one who had incurred their dis-
pleasure. The head of the college was called Pontifex Maximus,
or the Chief Bridge-builder, which tide was assumed by the Ro-
man emperors, and after them by the Christian bishops of Rome ;
and thus the name has come down to our times.

The College of Heralds had the care of all public matters per-
taining to foreign nations. If the Roman people had suffered any

^Seep. 226, It is possible Xhsitpons orijiinally signified not "bridge," but
"way" generally, 2,x\^ pontifex therefore meant "constructor of ways." —
MOMMSEN.

SACRED GAMES.

221

Wrong from another state, it was the duty of the heralds to
demand satisfaction If this was denied, and war determined
upon, then a herald proceeded to the frontier of the enemy's
country and hurled over the boundary a spear dipped in blood.
This was a declaration of war. The Romans were very careful
in the obser\-ance of this ceremony.

Sacred Gaines. — The Romans had many religious games and
festivals. Prominent among these were the so-calied Circensian

SUOVETAURILIA.

(A lustratory sacrifice of a bull a sheep, and a swine, which ended a festival known
as the Ambarval a, in which the fields were purified and blessed.)

Games, or Games of the Circus, which were very similar to the
sacred games of the Greeks.^ They consisted, in the main, of
chariot-racing, wrestling, foot-racing, and various other athletic
contests.

These festivals, as in the case of those of the Greeks, had theii

* See History of Greece, p. 30.

222 THE ROMAN KINGDOM.

origin in the belief that the gods delighted in the exhibition of
feats of skill, strength, or endurance ; that their anger might be
appeased by such spectacles ; or that they might be persuaded
by the promise of games to lend aid to mortals in great emergen-
cies. At the opening of the year it was customary for the Roman
magistrate, in behalf of the people, to promise to the gods games
and festivals, provided good crops, protection from pestilence,
and victory were granted the Romans during the year. So, too, a
general in great straits in the field might, in the name of the state,
vow plays to the gods, and the people were sacredly bound to
fulfil the promise. Plays given in fulfilment of vows thus made
were called votive games.'

Towards the close of the republic these games lost much of
their religious character, and at last became degraded into mere
brutal shows given by ambitious leaders for the purpose of winning
popularity.

1 The festival of the Saturnalia was celebrated in honor of Saturn, the
god of sowing. It was an occasion on which all classes, including the slaves,
who were allowed their freedom during the celebration, gave themselves up to
riotous amusements; hence the significance we attach to the word saiurnalian.
The well-known Roman Carnival of to-day is a survival of the ancient Satur-
nalia.

LEGENDARY TALES. 223

LEGENDARY TALES PERTAINING TO THE EARLY HIS-
TORY OF ROME.i

^NEAS AND HIS TROJAN COMPANIONS ARRIVE IN IXALY.

After Troy had been-taken by the Greeks, Aneas, led by the Fates,
came in search of a new home to the Laurentian ^ shores. King Latinus,
when he learned that the leader of the band was .'Eneas, the son of
Anchises by Venus, made a league of friendship with the strangers,
and gave his daughter Lavinia in marriage to the Trojan hero, ^neas
built a town which he called Lavinium, after the name of his wife.

The Trojans and the people of Latium were soon engaged in war
with Turnus, king of the Rutulians, to whom Lavinia had been affianced
before the coming of yEneas. In the battle that followed, the Rutulians
were defeated, but King Latinus was killed ; and thenceforth ^Eneas
was king, not only of the Trojans, but also of the people over whom
Latinus had ruled. To both nations he gave the common name of
Latins.

^neas was followed in the government by his son Ascanius, who,
finding Lavinium too strait for its inhabitants, left that town, and built
a new city on the Alban Mount, to which was given the name of Alba
Longa. In this city ruled Ascanius and a long line of his descendants.
At length, by force and violence, ruled Amulius. He had gained pos-
session of the kingdom by dethroning his brother Numitor, putting to
death his male offspring, and making his daughter, Rhea Sylvia, a
vestal, in order that she should remain unmarried. But Rhea brought
forth twins, of whom the god Mars was declared to be the father. The
cruel king ordered the children to be thrown into the Tiber. Now it
so happened that the river had overflowed its banks, and the cradle in
which the children were borne was finally left on dry ground by the
retiring flood. Attracted by the cries of the children, a she-wolf
directed her course to them, and with the greatest tenderness fondled
and nursed them. There, in the care of the wolf, a shepherd named
Faustulus found them, and carried them home to his wife, to be reared
with his own children.

1 From Livy's History of Rome, 1. and H. In this connection read Macaulay's
Lays of Ancient Rome. As to the credibility of these legends, see further on, last
chapter, paragraph headed " Lays and Ballads of the Legendary Age."

* Italian.

224 THE ROMAM KINGDOM.

When the boys had grown to be men, they put to death the usurper
Amulius, and restored the throne to their grandfather Numitor. Numi-
tor now reigned at Alba ; but Romulus and Remus — for so the brothers
were named — had a strong desire to build a city on the spot where they
had been exposed and rescued. A shameful contest, however, arose
between the brothers, as to which of the two should give name to the
new city. It was determined that the matter should be decided by
augury (see p. 219). Romulus chose the Palatine and Remus the
Aventine Hill, from which to watch for the omens. To Remus first
appeared six vultures ; afterwards twelve appeared to Romulus. Here-
upon each was proclaimed king by his followers, — Remus, on the
ground that the birds had shown themselves to him first ; Romulus, on
the ground that the greater number had appeared to him. A quarrel
ensuing, Remus was killed. Another account, however, says that
Remus, when the walls of the new city had been raised to only a little
height, leaped over them in derision ; whereupon Romulus in anger
slew him, at the same time uttering these words : " So perish every one
that shall hereafter leap over my wall." The city was at length built,
and was called Rome, from the name of its founder.

The Romans capture the Sabine Women for Wives.

The new city, having been made by Romulus a sort of asylum or
refuge for the discontented and the outlawed of all the surrounding
states, soon became very populous, and more powerful than either
Lavinium or Alba Longa. But there were few women among its in-
habitants. Romulus therefore sent embassies to the neighboring cities
to ask that his people might take wives from among them. But the
adjoining nations were averse to entering into marriage alliances with
the men of the new city. Thereupon the Roman youth determined to
secure by violence what they could not obtain by other means. Rom-
ulus appointed a great festival, and invited to the celebration all the
surrounding peoples. The Sabines especially came in great numbers
with their wives and daughters. In the midst of the games, the
Roman youth, at a preconcerted signal, rushed among the spectators,
and seized and carried off to their homes the daughters of their guests.
This violation of the laws of hospitality led to a war on the part of
the injured Sabines against the Romans. Peace, however, was made
between the combatants by the young women themselves, who, as the
wives of their captors, had become reconciled to their lot. The two

LEGENDARY TALES. 225

nations were now combined into one, the Sabines removing to one of
the Seven Hills. Each people, however, retained its own king; but
upon the death of the Sabine king, Titus Tatius, Romulus ruled over
both the Romans and the Sabines. During a thunder-storm Romulus
was caught up to the skies, and Numa Pompilius ruled in his stead.

The Combat between the Horatii and the Curiatii.

In process of time a war broke out between Rome and Alba Longa.
It might be called a civil war, for the Romans and Albans were alike
descendants of the Trojans. The two armies were ready to engage in
battle when it was proposed that the controversy should be decided by
a combat between three Alban brothers named the Curiatii, and three
Roman brothers known as the Horatii. The nation whose champions
gained the victory was to rule over the other. On the signal being
given, the combat began. Two of the Romans soon fell lifeless, and
the three Curiatii were wounded. The remaining Roman, who was
unhurt, was now surrounded by the three Albans. To avoid their
united attack, he turnea and fled, thinking that they, being wounded,
would almost certainly become separated in following him. This did
actually happen ; and when Horatius, looking back as he fled, saw the
Curiatii to be following him at different intervals, he turned himself
about and fell upon his pursuers, one after the other, and despatched
them.

So in accordance with the terms of the treaty which the two cities
had made, conditioned on the issue of the fight between the champions,
Rome held dominion over Alba Longa. But the league between the
Romans and the Albans was soon broken, and then the Romans, de-
molishing the houses of Alba Longa, carried off" all the inhabitants to
Rome, and incorporated them with the Roman state. ^

The Exploit of Horatius Cocles.

After the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome, they besought Por-
senna, king of Clusium, a powerful city of Etruria, to espouse their
cause, and help them to regain the kingly power at Rome. Porsenna
lent a favorable ear to their solicitations, and made war upon the
Roman state. As his army drew near to Rome, all the people from

1 For the sequel of this story, see Livy, I. 26.

226 THE ROMAN KINGDOM.

the surrounding country hastened within the city gates. The bravery
of a single man, Horatius Codes, alone prevented the enemy from
effecting an entrance into the city. This man was posted as a guard
on the Sublician Bridge (that is, "bridge of piles"), which led across
the Tiber from the citadel of the Janiculum. The Janiculum having
been taken by the enemy, its defenders were retreating in great disorder
across the bridge, and the victors following close after. Horatius Codes
called after his fleeing companions to break down the bridge, while he
held the pursuers at bay. Taking his stand at the farther entrance of the
bridge, he, with the help of two comrades, held the enemy in check,
while the structure was being destroyed. As the bridge fell with a
crash into the stream, Codes leaped into the water, and amidst a
shower of darts swam in safety to the Roman side. Through his brav-
ery he had saved Rome. His grateful countrymen erected a statue to
his honor in the Comitium, and voted him a plot of land as large as he
could plow in a single day.

The Fortitude of Mucius SCiEVOLA.

Failing to take Rome by assault, Porsenna endeavored to reduce it
by a regular siege. After the investment had been maintained for a
considerable time, a. Roman youth, Gains Mucius by name, resolved to
deliver the city from the presence of the besiegers by going into the
camp of the enemy and killing Porsenna. Through a mistake, how-
ever, he slew the secretary of the king instead of the king himself. He
was seized and brought into the presence of Porsenna, who threatened
him with punishment by fire unless he made a full disclosure of the
Roman plots. Mucius, to show the king how little he could be moved
by threats, thrust his right hand into a flame that was near, and held it
there unflinchingly until it was consumed. Porsenna was so impressed
by the fortitude of the youth, that he dismissed him without punish-
ment. From the loss of his right hand, Mucius received the surname
of Scaevola ; that is, The Left-handed.

The sequel of the story is that Porsenna, having learned from Mucius
that three hundred Roman youth had entered into a vow to sacrifice
themselves, if need be, in order to compass his death, made a treaty of
peace with the Romans and withdrew his army from before their city.

THE FIRST CONSULS. 227

CHAPTER II.

THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC: CONQUEST OF ITALY.

(509-264 B.C.)

The First Consuls. — With the monarchy overthrown and the
last king and his house banished from Rome, the people set to
work to reorganize the government. In place of the king, there
were elected (by the comitia centuriata, in which assembly the
plebeians had a place) two patrician magistrates, called consuls,^
who were chosen for one year, and were invested with almost all
the powers, save some priestly functions, that had been held by
the monarch during the regal period.

In public each consul was attended by twelve servants, called
lictors, each of whom bore an axe bound in a bundle of rods
{/asces), the symbols of the authority of the consul to flog and
to put to death. Within the limits of the city, however, the axe
must be removed from the fasces, by which was indicated that no
Roman citizen could be put to death by the consuls without the
consent of the public assembly .'^

Lucius Junius Brutus and Tarquinius CoUatinus were the first
consuls under the new constitution. But it is said that the very
name of Tarquinius was so intolerable to the people that he was
forced to resign the consulship, and that he and all his house were

1 That is, colleagues. Each consul had the power of obstructing the acts or
vetoing the commands of the other. In times of great public danger the con-
suls were superseded by a special officer called a dictator, whose term of office
was limited to six months, but whose power during this time was as unlimited
as that of the kings had been.

2 Each consul also had an assistant who bore the name of qtiastor. The
duties of the quaestor were at first chiefly of a judicial character, but later they
became in the main of a financial nature.

228

THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC.

driven out of Rome.^ Another consul, Publius Valerius, was chosen
in his stead.
First Secession of the Plebeians (494 b.c). — Taking advan-

-?v^

LICTORS.

tage of the disorders that followed the political revolution, the
Latin towns which had been forced to acknowledge the supremacy
of Rome rose in revolt, and the result was that almost all the con-

1 The truth is, he was related to the exiled royal family, and the people were
distrustful of his loyalty to the republic.

THE COVENANT AND THE TRIBUNES. 229

•
quests that had been made under the kings were lost. For a long
time the little republic had to struggle hard for bare existence.^

Troubles without brought troubles within. The poor plebeians,
during this period of disorder and war, fell in debt to the wealthy
class, — for the Roman soldier went to war at his own charge,
equipping and feeding himself, — and payment was exacted with
heartless severity. A debtor became the absolute property of his
creditor, who might sell him as a slave to pay the debt, and in
some cases even put him to death.^ All this was intolerable. The
plebeians determined to secede from Rome and build a new city
for themselves on a neighboring eminence, called afterwards the
Sacred Hill. They marched away in a body from Rome to the
chosen spot, and began making preparations for erecting new
homes (494 B.C.).

The Covenant and the Tribunes. — The patricians saw clearly
that such a division must prove ruinous to the state, and that the
plebeians must be persuaded to give up their enterprise and come
back to Rome. The consul Valerius was sent to treat with the

^ The Romans had to fight both the Latins and the Etruscans. A great
victory gained by the Romans at Lake Regillus, 496 B.C., ended the war, and
secured the future of Rome.

2 Livy draws the following picture to show the condition of the poor
debtor. One day an old man, pale and emaciated, and clothed in rags,
tottered into the Forum. To those that crowded about him to inquire the
cause of his misery, he related this tale : While he had been away serving in
the Sabine war, the crops on his little farm had been destroyed by the enemy,
his house burnt, and his cattle driven off. To pay his taxes, he had been
forced to run in debt; this debt, growing continually by usury, had consumed
first his farm, a paternal inheritance, then the rest of his substance, and at
length had laid hold of his own person. He had been thrown into prison and
beaten with stripes. He then showed the bystanders the marks of scourging
upon his body, and at the same time displayed the scars of the wounds he had
received in battle. Thereupon a great tumult arose, and the people, filled with
indignation, ran together from all sides into the Forum. H. 23.

Compare the condition of the Roman debtors with that of the same class
at Athens before the reforms of Solon. See History of Greece, p. 52.

230 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC,

•
insurgents. The plebeians were at first obstinate, but at last were
persuaded to yield to the entreaties of the embassy to return,
being won to his mind, so it is said, by one of the wise senators,
Menenius, who made use of the well-known fable of the Body and
the Members.

The following covenant was entered into, and bound by the
most solemn oaths and vows before the gods : The debts of the
poor plebeians were to be cancelled, and those held in slavery set
free ; and two magistrates (the number was soon increased to
ten), called tribunes, whose duty it should be to watch over the
plebeians, and protect them against the injustice, harshness, and
partiality of the patrician magistrates, were to be chosen from the
commons. The persons of these officers were made sacred. Any
one interrupting a tribune in the discharge of his duties, or doing
him any violence, was declared an outlaw, whom any one might
kill. That the tribunes might be always easily found, they were
not allowed to go more than one mile beyond the city walls.
Their houses were to be open night as well as day, that any
plebeian unjustly dealt with might flee thither for protection and
refuge.

We cannot overestimate the importance of the change effected
in the Roman constitution by the creation of this office of the trib-
unate. Under the protection and leadership of the tribunes, who
were themselves protected by oaths of inviolable sanctity, the ple-
beians carried on a struggle for a share in the offices and dignities
of the state which never ceased until the Roman government, as
yet only republican in name, became in fact a real democracy, in
which patrician and plebeian shared equally in all emoluments and
privileges.

Coriolanus. — The tradition of Coriolanus illustrates in what
manner the tribunes cared for the rights of the common people
and protected them from the oppression of the nobles. During
a severe famine at Rome, Gelon, the king of Syracuse, sent large
quantities of grain to the capital for distribution among the suffer-
ing poor. A certain patrician, Coriolanus by name, made a proposal

CORIOLANUS. 231

that none of the grain should be given to the plebeians save on con-
dition that they gave up their tribunes. These officials straightway
summoned him before the plebeian assembly/ on the charge of
having broken the solemn covenant of the Sacred Mount, and so
bitter was the feeling against him that he was obliged to flee from
Rome.

He now aUied himself with the Volscians/ enemies of Rome,
and even led their armies against his native city. An embassy
from the Senate was sent to him, to sue for peace. But the spirit
of Coriolanus was bitter and revengeful, and he would Usten to
none of their proposals. Nothing availed to move him until his
mother, at the head of a train of Roman matrons, came to his
tent, and with tears pleaded with him to spare the city. Her
entreaties and the " soft prayers " of his own wife and children
prevailed, and with the words, " Mother, thou hast saved Rome,
but lost thy son," he led away the Volscian army.

Cincinnatus made Dictator. — The enemies of Rome, taking
advantage of the dissensions of the nobles and commons, pressed
upon the frontiers of the republic on all sides. In 458 B.C., the
.^quians, while one of the consuls was away fighting the Sabines,
defeated the forces of the other, and shut them up in a narrow
valley, whence escape seemed impossible. There was great terror
in Rome when news of the situation of the army was brought to
the city.

The Senate immediately appointed Cincinnatus, a grand old
patrician, dictator. The ambassadors that carried to him the mes-

1 This was the Concilium Tributum Plebis, an assembly which was estab-
lished 471 B.C., by what is known as the Publilian Law. It was made up
wholly of plebeians, and was presided over by the tribunes. Later, there came
into existence another tribal assembly, which was composed of patricians and
plebeians, and presided over by consuls or praetors. Some authorities are in-
clined to regard these two assemblies as one and the same body; but others,
among whom is Mommsen, with probably better reason, look upon them as
two distinct organizations.

^ For the location of the Volscians, the ^iiquians, and the other enemies of
Rome during tliis period, see map, p. 235.

232 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC.

sage from the Senate found him upon his little farm near the Tiber,
at work behind the plough. Accepting the office at once, he hastily
gathered an army, marched to the relief of the consul, captured
the entire army of the ^quians, and sent them beneath the yoke.^
Cincinnatus then led his army back to Rome in triumph, laid
down his office, and sought again the retirement of his farm.

The Decemvirs and the Tables of Laws. — Written laws are
always a great safeguard against oppression. Until what shall
constitute a crime and what shall be its penalty are clearly written
down, and well known and understood by all, judges may render
unfair decisions, or inflict unjust punishment, and yet run lit-
tle risk — unless they go altogether too far — of being called to
an account; for no one but themselves knows what the law or
the penalty really is. Hence in all struggles of the people against
the tyranny of the ruling class, the demand for written laws is one
of the first measures taken by the people for the protection of
their persons and property. Thus we have seen the people of
Athens, early in their struggle with the nobles, demanding and
obtaining a code of written laws.^ The same thing now took place
at Rome. The plebeians demanded that a code of laws be drawn
up, in accordance with which the consuls, who exercised judicial
powers, should render their decisions. The patricians offered a
stubborn resistance to their wishes, but finally were forced to yield
to the popular clamor.

A commission was sent to the Greek cities of Southern Italy
and to Athens to study the Grecian laws and customs. Upon the
return of this embassy, a commission of ten magistrates, who were
known as decemvirs, was appointed to frame a code of laws
(45 1 B.C.) . These officers, while engaged in this work, were also
to administer the entire government, and so were invested with
the supreme power of the state. The patricians gave up their

^ This was formed of two spears thrust firmly into the ground and crossed
a few feet from the earth by a third. Prisoners of war were forced to pass
beneath this yoke as a symbol of submission.

^See History of Greece, pp. 50, 52.

THE DECEMVIRS. 233

consuls and the plebeians their tribunes. At the end of the first
year, the task of the board was quite far from being finished, so
a new deceravirate was elected to complete the work. Appius
Claudius was the only member of the old board that was returned
to the new.

The code was soon finished, and the laws were written on
twelve tablets of bronze, which were fastened to the Rostra, or
orator's platform in the Forum, where they might be seen and
read by all. These " Laws of the Twelve Tables " were to Roman
jurisprudence what the good laws of Solon ^ were to the Athenian
constitution. They formed the basis of all new legislation for
many centuries, and constituted a part of the education of the
Roman youth — every school-boy being required to learn them by
heart.

Especially influential were the Laws of the Twelve Tables in
helping to establish social and civil equality between the patricians
and plebeians. They tended to efface the social distinctions that
had hitherto existed between the two orders, and helped to draw
them together into a single people ; for up to this time the rela-
tions of the plebeians to the patricians, notwithstanding the reforms
of Servius TuUius, had been rather those of foreigners than of
fellow-citizens.^

^See History of Greece, p. 52.

' For illustration, up to this time the plebeians had not been allowed to
intermarry with the patricians. This was in strict accord with the general rule
among the ancients, that the citizens of one city should have no social dealings
with those of another. Only a few years, however, after the drawing up of the
code, and owing in part at least to its influence, a law known, from the tribune
(Gaius Canuleius) who secured its passage, as the Canuleian Law, gave the
plebeians the right to intermarry with the patricians. There was now civil and
social equality established between the two orders. The plebeians next engaged
in a struggle for political rights and political equality (see p. 240). These long
contests carried on by the plebeians for civil, social, and political rights, and
their gradual admission to the privileges from which they had been excluded,
may be well illustrated by the case of the freedmen among us, who, by the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to our Constitution, were admitted first
to the civil and then to the political rights and privileges of American citizens.

234 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC.

Misrule and Overthrow of the Decemvirs. — The first decem-
virs used the great power lodged in their hands with justice and
prudence ; but the second board, under the leadership of Appius
Claudius, instituted a most infamous and tyrannical rule. No
man's life was safe, be he patrician or plebeian. An ex-tribune,
daring to denounce the course of the decemvirs, was caused by
them to be assassinated. Another act, even more outrageous than
this, filled to the brim the cup of their iniquities. Virginia was
the beautiful daughter of a plebeian, and Appius Claudius, desiring
to gain possession of her, made use of his authority as a judge to
pronounce her a slave. The father of the maiden, preferring the
death of his daughter to her dishonor, killed her with his own
hand. Then, drawing the weapon from her breast, he hastened
to the army, which was resisting a united invasion of the Sabines
and ^quians, and, exhibiting the bloody knife, told the story of
the outrage.^ The soldiers rose as a single man and hurried to the
city. The excitement resulted in a great body of the Romans,
soldiers and citizens, probably chiefly plebeians, seceding from the
state, and marching away to the Sacred Hill. This procedure,
which once before had proved so effectual in securing justice to
the oppressed, had a similar issue now. The situation was so
critical that the decemvirs were forced to resign. The consulate
and the tribunate were restored. Eight of the decemvirs were
forced to go into exile; Appius Claudius and one other, having
been imprisoned, committed suicide (450 e.g.).

Consular, or Military Tribunes. — The overthrow of the decem-
virate was followed by a bitter struggle between the nobles and the
commons, which was an effort on the part of the latter to gain
admission to the consulship ; for up to this, time only a patrician
could hold that office. The contention resulted in a compromise.
It was agreed that, in place of the two consuls, the people might
elect from either order magistrates that should be known as

1 Livy, III. 44-50. This tale is possibly mythical, but it at least gives a
vivid, and doubtless truthful, picture of the times.

THE AGER ROHANTJS AND THE LATIN CONFEDERACY
In the time of the early Republic, about B.Ci 450>

SCALr OF MILES

r

10

I The Agtr Romanua.
|jl|||ji|||ri|j The Latin Confederacy.
.iii|{;!i|;;i!i The original domain of the city of Rome.

1. The Pass of Algidus.
S. Ike AH>an Mount.
S. Mount Soracte.

236 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC.

" military tribunes with consular powers." These officers, whose
number varied, differed from consuls more in name than in func-
tions or authority. In fact, the plebeians had gained the office,
but not the name^ (444 B.C.).

The Censors. — No sooner had the plebeians secured the right
of admission to the tribunate with consular powers, than the jeal-
ous and exclusive patricians began scheming to rob them of the
fruit of the victory they had gained. They effected this by taking
from the consulate some of its most distinctive duties and powers,
and conferring them upon two new patrician officers called censors.
The functions of these magistrates were many and important.
They took the census, and thus assigned to every man his position
in the different classes of the citizens ; and they could, for immo-
rality or any improper conduct, not only degrade a man from his
rank, but deprive him of his vote. It was their duty to watch the
public morals and in case of necessity to administer wholesome
advice. Thus we are told of their reproving the Roman youths
for wearing tunics with long sleeves — an Oriental and effeminate
custom — and for neglecting to marry upon arriving at a proper
age. From the name of these Roman officers, comes our word
censorious, meaning fault-finding.

The first censors were elected probably in the year 444 b.c. :
about one hundred years afterwards, in 351 b.c, the plebeians
secured the right of holding this office also.

Siege and Capture of Veil. — We must now turn our attention
to the fortunes of Rome in war. Almost from the founding of the
city, we find its warUke citizens carrying on a fierce contest with their
powerful Etruscan neighbors on the north. Veii was one of the

^ The patricians were especially unwilling that the plebeians should receive
the name, for the reason that an ex-consul enjoyed certain dignities and hon-
ors, such as the right to wear a particular kind of dress and to set up in his
house images of his ancestors. These honorary distinctions the higher order
were jealous of retaining exclusively for themselves. Owing to the great inilu-
ence of the patricians in the elections, it was not until about 400 B.C. that a
plebeian was chosen to the new office.

SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF VEIL

237

largest and richest of the cities of Etruria. Around this the war

gathered. The Romans, Hke the Grecians

at Troy, attacked its walls for ten years.

The length of the siege, and the necessity of

maintaining a force permanently in the field,

led to the establishment of a paid standing

army ; for hitherto the soldier had not only

equipped himself, but had served without

pay. Thus was laid the basis of that mili-
tary power which was destined to effect the

conquest of the world, and then, in the hands

of ambitious and favorite generals, to over-
throw the republic itself.

The capture of Veii by the dictator Ca-

millus (396 B.C.) was followed by that of

many other Etruscan towns. Rome was etruscan archer.

enriched by their spoils, and became the centre of a large and

lucrative trade. The frontiers of the republic were pushed out

even beyond the utmost limits of the
kingdom before its overthrow.^ All
that was lost by the revolution had
been now regained, and much besides
had been won. At this moment there
broke upon the city a storm from the
north, which all but cut short the story
we are narrating.

Sack of Eome by the Gauls (390
B.C.) . — We have already mentioned

1 Trace the gradual growth of the Roman
domain (^Ager Romantti) by a comparative
study of the sketch-maps on pp. 235, 242,
263. Note, also, the increase in the number of
Latin colonies between the dissolution of the
Latin Confederacy (see p. 244) and the Second
ROMAN SOLDIER. Punic War, as shown by tlie last two maps.

23S THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC,

how, in very remote times, the tribes of Gaul crossed the Alps
and established themselves in Norlhern Italy (see p. 209). While
the Romans were conquering the towns of Etruria, these barbarian
hordes were moving southward, and overrunning and devastating
the countries of Central Italy.

News was brought to Rome that they were advancing upon that
city. A Roman army met them on the banks of the river Allia,
eleven miles from the capital. The Romans were driven in great
panic from the field. It would be impossible to picture the con-
sternation and despair that reigned at Rome when the fugitives
brought to the city intelligence of the terrible disaster. It was
never forgotten, and the day of the battle of the Allia was ever
after a black day in the Roman calendar. The sacred vessels
of the temples were buried ; the eternal fires of Vesta were hur-
riedly borne by their virgin keepers to a place of safety in
Etruria ; and a large part of the population fled in dismay across
the Tiber. No attempt was made to defend any portion of the
city save the citadel.

When the Gauls entered the city they found everything
abandoned to them. The aged senators, so the Romans after-
wards proudly related, thinking it unworthy of their office to
seek safety in flight, resolved to meet death in a befitting way.
Arrayed in their robes of office, each with his ivory-headed wand
in his hand, they seated themselves in the Forum, in their chairs
of state, and there sat, " silent and motionless as statues," while
the barbarians were carrying on their work of sack and pillage
about them. The rude Gauls, arrested by the venerable aspect
of the white-haired senators, gazed in awe upon them, and offered
them no violence. But finally one of the barbarians laid his
hand upon the beard of the venerable Papirius, to stroke it under
an impulse of childlike reverence. The aged senator, interpreting
the movement as an insult, struck the Gaul with his sceptre. The
spell was instantly broken. The enraged barbarians struck
Papirius from his seat, and then falling upon the other senators
massacred them all.

THE SACKING OF ROME. 239

The little garrison within the Capitol, under the command
of the hero Manlius, for seven months resisted all the efforts of
the Gauls to dislodge them. A tradition tells how, when the
barbarians, under cover of the darkness of night, had climbed
the steep rock, and had almost effected an entrance to the
citadel, the defenders were awakened by the cackling of some
geese, which the piety of the famishing soldiers had spared,
because these birds were sacred to Juno.

News was now brought the Gauls that the Venetians were over-
running their possessions in Northern Italy. This led them to
open negotiations with the Romans. For one thousand pounds of
gold, according to the historian Livy, the Gauls agreed to retire
from the city. As the story runs, while the gold was being weighed
out in the Forum, the Romans complained that the weights were
false, when Brennus, the Gallic leader, threw his sword also into
the scales, exclaiming, "F^ Victis I'' '•' Woe to the vanquished."
Just at this moment, so the tale continues, Camillus, a brave patri-
cian general, appeared upon the scene with a Roman army that
had been gathered from the fugitives ; and, as he scattered the
barbarians with heavy blows, he exclaimed, " Rome is ransomed
with steel, and not with gold." According to one account Brennus
himself was taken prisoner; but another tradition says that he
escaped, carrying with him not only the ransom, but a vast booty
besides.

The Rebuilding of Rome. — When the fugitives returned to
Rome after the withdrawal of the Gauls, they found the city a
heap of ruins. Some of the poorer classes, shrinking from the
labor of rebuilding their old homes, proposed to abandon the site
and make Veil their new capital. But love for the old spot at
last prevailed over all the persuasions of indolence, and the people,
with admirable courage, set themselves to the task of rebuilding
their homes. It was a repetition of the scene at Athens after the
retreat of the Persians.^ The city was speedily restored, and was

* See History of Greece, p. 74.

240 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC.

soon enjoying her old position of supremacy among the sur-
rounding states. There were some things, however, which even
Roman resolution and energy could not restore. These were the
ancient records and documents, through whose irreparable loss
the early history of Rome is involved in great obscurity and
uncertainty.

Treason and Death of Manlius. — The ravages of the Gauls
left the poor plebeians in a most pitiable condition. In order to
rebuild their dwellings and restock their farms, they were obliged
to borrow money of the rich patricians, and consequently soon
began again to experience the insult and oppression that were ever
incident to the condition of the debtor class at Rome.

The patrician Manlius, the hero of the brave defence of the
Capitol, now came forward as the champion of the plebeians. He
sold the larger part of his estates, and devoted the proceeds to
the relief of the debtor class. It seems evident that in thus under-
taking the cause of the commons he had personal aims and ambi-
tions. The patricians determined to crush him. He was finally
brought to trial before the popular assembly, on the charge of
conspiring to restore the office of king. From the Forum, where
the people were gathered, the Capitol, which Manlius had so
bravely defended against the barbarians, was in full sight. Point-
ing to the temples he had saved, he appealed to the gods and to
the gratitude of the Roman people. The people responded to the
appeal in a way altogether natural. They refused to condemn him.
'/ But brought to trial a second time, and now in a grove whence
the citadel could not be seen, he was sentenced to death, and was
thrown from the Tarpeian Rock.^ This event occurred 384 B.C.

Plebeians admitted to the Consulship. — For nearly half a cen-
tury after the death of Manlius the most important events in the

1 The Tarpeian Rock was the name given to the cliff which the Capitohne
Hill formed on the side towards the Tiber (or towards the Palatine, according
to some). It received its name from Tarpeia, daughter of one of the legen-
dary keepers of the citadel. State criminals were frequently executed by
being thrown from this rock.

PLEBEIANS ADMITTED TO THE CONSULSHIP. 241

history of Rome centre about the struggle of the plebeians for
admission to those offices of the government whence the jealousy
of the patricians still excluded them. The Licinian Laws, so called
from one of their proposers, the tribune C. Licinius, besides reliev-
ing the poor of usurious interest, and effecting a more just division
of the public lands, also provided that consuls should be chosen
yearly, as at first (see p. 234), and that one of the consuls should
be a plebeian. This last provision opened to any one of the ple-
beian class the highest office in the state. The nobles, when they
saw that it would be impossible to resist the popular demand, had
recourse to the old device. They effected a compromise, whereby
the judicial powers of the consuls were taken from them and con-
ferred upon a new magistrate, who bore the name of prxtor.
Only patricians, of course, were to be eligible to this new office.
They then permitted the Licinian Laws to pass (367 B.C.).

During the latter half of the fourth century B.C. (between the
years 356-300) the plebeians gained admittance to the dictator-
ship, the censorship, the praetorship, and to the College of Augurs
and the College of Pontiffs. They had been admitted to the
College of Priests having charge of the Sibylline books, at the time
of the passing of the Licinian Laws. With plebeians in all these
positions, the rights of the lower order were fairly secured against
oppressive and partisan decisions on the part of the magistrates,
and against party fraud in the taking of the auspices and in the
regulation of the calendar. There was now political equality
between the nobility and the commonalty.

Wars for the Mastery of Italy.

The First Samnite War (343-341 b.c). — The union of the two
orders in the state allowed the Ronjans now to employ their un-
divided strength in subjugating the different states of the peninsula.
The most formidable competitors of the Romans for supremacy in
Italy were the Samnites, rough and warlike mountaineers who held
the Apennines to the east of Latium. They were worthy rivals of

THE ACER ROMANUS AFTER THE LATIN WAR, B. C. 338.

SCALE OF MILES

10

20

Tlie Ager Somanus,

The dates annexed to towna are thote of their annexation,

Latin Colonies.

The dates are those of their foundation.

REVOLT OF THE LATIN CITIES.

243

the " Children of Mars." The successive struggles between these
martial races are known as the First, Second, and Third Samnite
wars. They extended over a period of half a century, and in their
course involved almost all the states of Italy.

Of the first of this series of wars we know very little, although
Livy wrote a long, but unfortunately very unreliable, narration of
it. In the midst of the struggle, Rome was confronted by a dan-
gerous revolt of her Latin
allies, and, leaving the war
unfinished, turned her
forces upon the insur-
gents.

Eevolt of the Latin
Cities (340-338 B.C.).—
The strife between the
Romans and their Latin
allies was simply the old
contest within the walls of
the capital between the
patricians and the ple-
beians transferred to a
larger arena. As the no-
bles had oppressed the
commons, so now both
these orders united in the
oppression of the Latins
— the plebeians in their
bettered circumstances
forgetting the lessons of
adversity. The Latin al-
lies demanded a share in the government, and that the lands
acquired by conquest should be distributed among them as well
as among Roman citizens. The Romans refused. All Latium
rose in revolt against the injustice and tyranny of the oppressor.

After about three years* hard fighting, the rebellion was sub-

SAMNITE WARRIOR. (From a Vase.)

244 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC.

dued. The Latin League was now broken up. Four of the
towns ^ retained their independence ; the others, however, were
made a part of the Roman domain. The inhabitants of some of
these latter cities were admitted to full Roman citizenship, but
those of the remainder were reduced virtually to the condition of
subjects.^ Rome, in a word, had converted the confederacy into
an empire, just as Athens a hundred years earlier converted the
Delian League into an imperial domain.^

Second and Third Samnite Wars (326-290 b.c). — In a few
years after the close of the Latin contest, the Romans were at war
again with their old rivals, the Samnites. Notwithstanding the
latter were thoroughly defeated in this second contest, still it was
not long before they were again in arms and engaged in their third
struggle with Rome. This time they had formed a powerful co-
alition which embraced the Etruscans, the Umbrians, the Gauls,
and other nations.

Roman courage rose with the danger. The united armies of
the league met with a most disastrous defeat (at Sentinum, 295
B.C.), and the power of the coalition was broken. One after an-
other the states that had joined the alliance were chastised. The
Gauls were routed, the Etruscans were crushed, and the Samnites
were forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome. A few
years later, almost all of the Greek cities of Southern Italy, save
Tarentum, also came under the growing power of the imperial
city.

"War witli Pyrrhus (282-272 e.g.). — Tarentum was one of the
most noted of the Hellenic cities of Magna Graecia. It was a

^ Tibur, Praeneste, Cora, and Laurentum. Compare maps on pp. 235, 242.

''They retained, however, the right of managing their own local affairs. "A
town annexed to Rome on these terms, losing its sovereignty and becoming a
part of the Roman state, but retaining self-government in local concerns, was
called a municipitim. This device, the municipality, for combining local self-
government with imperial relations, is the most important contribution made by
Rome to political science." — Allen's Short History of the Roman People, p. 82.

' See History of Greece, p. 79.

fVAJ? WITH PYRRHUS. 245

seaport on the Calabrian coast, and had grown opulent through
the extended trade of its merchants. The capture of some
Roman vessels, and an insult offered to an envoy of the republic
by the Tarentines, led t^ a declaration of war against them by the
Roman Senate. The Tarentines turned to Greece for aid.
Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, cousin of Alexander the Great, who had
an ambition to build up such an empire in the West as his famous
kinsman had established in the East, responded to their entreaties,
and crossed over into Italy with a small army of Greek merce-
naries and twenty war elephants. He organized and drilled the
effeminate Tarentines, and soon felt prepared to face the Romans.

The hostile armies met at Heraclea (280 b.c). It is said that
when Pyrrhus, who had underestimated his foe, observed the skill
which the Romans evinced in forming their lines of battle, he
exclaimed, in admiration, " In war, at least, these men are not
barbarians." The battle was won for Pyrrhus by his war ele-
phants, the sight of which, being new to the Romans, caused
them to flee from the field in dismay. But Pyrrhus had lost
thousands of his bravest troops. Victories gained by such losses
in a country where he could not recruit his army, he saw clearly,
meant final defeat. As he looked over the battle-field he is said
to have turned to his companions and remarked, " Another such
victory and I must return to Epirus alone." He noticed also,
and not without appreciating its significance, that the wounds of
the Roman soldiers killed in the action were all in front. " Had
I such soldiers," said he, "I should soon be master of the
world." ^

The prudence of the victorious Pyrrhus led him to send to
the Romans proposals of peace. The embassy was headed by
his chief minister, Cineas, of whom Pyrrhus himself often said,
" The eloquence of Cineas wins me more victories than my sword."

^ Beneath the spoils which he hung as an offering in the Temple of Jupitei
at Tarentum he placed this inscription : —

" Those that had never been vanquished yet, Great Father of Olympus,
Those have I vanquished in the fight, and they have vanquished me.*^

246 THE EARLY ROMAN REPUBLIC.

When the Senate hesitated, its resolution was fixed by the elo-
quence of the aged Appius Claudius : " Rome," exclaimed he,
"shall never treat with a victorious foe." The ambassadors were
obliged to return to Pyrrhus unsuccessful in their mission. It was
at this time that Cineas, in answer to some inquiries of his master
respecting the Romans, drew the celebrated parallels that likened
their Senate to an assembly of kings, and war against such a
people to an attack upon another Hydra.

Pyrrhus, according to the Roman story-tellers, who most lav-
ishly embelHshed this chapter of their history, was not more
successful in attempts at bribery than in the arts of negotiation.
Attempting by large offers of gold to win P'abricius, who had been
intrusted by the Senate with an important embassy, the sturdy
old Roman replied, " Poverty, with an honest name, is more to
be desired than wealth."

Another story relates how, when the physician of Pyrrhus went
to Fabricius and offered to poison his enemy, Fabricius instantly
put the perfidious man in chains, and sent him back to his master
for punishment. The sequel of this story is that Pyrrhus con-
ceived such an exalted opinion of the Roman sense of honor that
he permitted the prisoners in his hands to go to the capital to
attend a festival, with no other security for their return than their
simple promise, and that not a single man broke his word.

After a second victory, as disastrous as his first, Pyrrhus crossed
over into Sicily, to aid the Grecians there in their struggle with
the Carthaginians. At first he was everywhere successful; but
finally fortune turned against him, and he wa^ glad to escape from
the island. Recrossing the straits into Italy, he once more en-
gaged the Romans, but at the battle of Beneventum suffered a
disastrous and final defeat at the hands of the consul Curius Den-
tatus (274 B.C.). Leaving a sufficient force to garrison Tarentum,
the baffled and disappointed king set sail for Epirus. He had
scarcely embarked before Tarentum surrendered to the Romans
(272 B.C.). This ended the struggle for the mastery of Italy.
Rome was now mistress of all the peninsula south of the Arnu.s

WAR WITH PYRRHUS. 247

and the Rubicon. It was now her care to consolidate these
possessions, and to fasten her hold upon them by means of a
perfect network of colonies ^ and military roads.

1 " Colonies were not all of the same character. They must be distinguished
into two classes, — the colonies of Roman citizens and the Latin colonies. The
colonies of Roman citizens consisted asually of three hundred men of approved
mihtary experience, who went forth with their families to occupy conquered
cities of no great magnitude, but which were important as military positions,
being usually on the sea-coast. These three hundred families formed a sort
of patrician caste, while the old inhabitants sank into the condition formerly
occupied by the plebeians at Rome. The heads of these families retained all
their rights as Roman citizens, and might repair to Rome to vote in the popu-
lar assemblies." — Liddell's History of Rome.

The Latin colonies numbered about twenty at the time of the Second Punic
War. A few of these were colonies that had been founded by the old Latin
Confederacy; but the most were towns that had been established by Rome
subsequent to the dissolution of the league (see p. 244). The term Latin was
applied to these later colonies of purely Roman origin, for the reason that they
enjoyed the same rights as the Latin towns that had retained their indepen-
dence. Thus the inhabitants of a Latin colony possessed some of the most
valuable of the private rights of Roman citizens, but they had no political
rights at the capital.

248 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.

CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.

(264-241 B.C.)

Carthage and the Carthaginian Empire. — Foremost among
the cities founded by the Phoenicians upon the different shores of
the Mediterranean was Carthage, upon the northern coast of
Africa. The city is thought to have had its beginnings in a small
trading-post, established late in the ninth century B.C., about one
hundred years before the legendary date of the founding of Rome.
The favorable location of the colony, upon one of the best harbors
of the African coast, gave the city a vast and lucrative commerce.
At the period which we have now reached it had grown into an
imperial city, covering, with its gardens and suburbs, a district
twenty-three miles in circuit. It could not have contained less
than 1,000,000 inhabitants. A commercial enterprise like that
of the mother city, Tyre, and exactions from subject cities and
states — for three hundred Libyan cities acknowledged the suze-
rainty of Carthage and paid tribute into its treasury — had ren-
dered it enormously wealthy. In the third century before our era
it was probably the richest city in the world.

By the time Rome had extciuded her authority over Italy, Car-
thage held sway, through peaceful colonization or by force of
arms, over all the northern coast of Africa from the Greater Syrtis
to the Pillars of Hercules, and possessed the larger part of Sicily,
as well as Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Isles, Southern Spain,
and scores of little islands scattered here and there in the neigh-
boring seas. With all its shores dotted with her colonies and
fortresses, and swept in every direction by the Carthaginian war-
galleys, the Western Mediterranean had become a " Phoenician

GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION. 249

lake," in which, as the Carthaginians boasted, no one dared wash
his hands without their permission.

Carthaginian Government and Religion. — The government
of Carthage, like that of Rome, was repubUcan in form. Corre-
sponding to the Roman consuls, two magistrates, called " suffetes,"
stood at the head of the state. The Senate was composed of the
heads of the leading families ; its duties and powers were very like
those of the Roman Senate. So well-balanced was the constitu-
tion, and so prudent was its administration, that six hundred years
of Carthaginian history exhibited not a single revolution.

The religion of the Carthaginians was the old Canaanitish wor-
ship of Baal, or the Sun. To Moloch, — another name for the
fire-god, — " who rejoiced in human victims and in parents' tears,"
they offered human sacrifices.

Home and Carthage compared. — These two great republics,
which for more than five centuries had been slowly extending
their limits and maturing their powers upon the opposite shores
of the Mediterranean, were now about to begin one of the most
memorable struggles of all antiquity — a duel that was to last, with
every vicissitude of fortune, for over one hundred years.

As was the case in the contest between Athens and Sparta, so
now the two rival cities, with their aUies and dependencies, were
very nearly matched in strength and resources. The Romans, it
is true, were almost destitute of a navy ; while the Carthaginians
had the largest and most splendidly equipped fleet that ever
patrolled the waters of the Mediterranean. But although the
Carthaginians were superior to the Romans in naval warfare, they
were greatly their inferiors in land encounters. The Carthaginian
territory, moreover, was widely scattered, embracing extended
coasts and isolated islands ; while the Roman possessions were
compact, and confined to a single and easily defended peninsula.
Again, the Carthaginian armies were formed chiefly of mercenaries,
while those of Rome were recruited very largely from the ranks of
the Roman people. And then the subject states of Carthage were
mostly of another race, language, and religion from their Phoeni-

250 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.

cian conquerors, and were ready, upon the first disaster to the
ruling city, to drop away from their allegiance ; while the Latin
allies and Italian dependencies of Rome were close kindred to her
in race and religion, and so, through natural impulse, for the most
part remained loyal to her during even the darkest periods of her
struggle with her rival.

The Beginning of the War. — Lying between Italy and the
coast of Africa is the large island of Sicily. It is in easy sight of
the former, and its southernmost point is only ninety miles from
the latter. At the commencement of the First Punic ^ War, the
Carthaginians held possession of all the island save a strip of the
eastern coast, which was under the sway of the Greek city of Syra-
cuse. The Greeks and Carthaginians had carried on an almost
uninterrupted struggle through two centuries for the control of the
island. The Romans had not yet set foot upon it. But it was
destined to become the scene of the most terrible encounters be-
tween the armaments of the two rivals. Pyrrhus had foreseen it
all. As he withdrew from the island, he remarked, " What a fine
battle-field we are leaving for the Romans and the Carthaginians."

In the year 264 B.C., on a flimsy pretext of giving protection to
some friends,^ the Romans crossed over to the island. That act

1 From Poeni, Latin for Phoenicians, and hence applied by the Romans to
the Carthaginians, as they were Phoenician colonists.

2 During the war with Pyrrhus, some Campanians, who liad been serving as
mercenaries in the army of the king of Syracuse, while returning to Italy,
conceived the project of seizing the town of Messana, on the Sicilian Straits.
They killed the citizens, intrenched themselves in the place, and commenced
to annoy the surrounding country with their marauding bands. Hiero, king
of Syracuse, besieged the ruffians in their stronghold. The Mamertines, or
" Sons of Mars," — for thus they termed themselves, — appealed to the Romans
for aid, basing their claims to assistance upon the alleged fact of common
descent from the war-god. Now the Romans had just punished a similar band
of Campanian robbers who had seized Rhegium, on the Italian side of the chan-
nel. To turn about now and lend aid to the Sicilian band would be the great-
est inconsistency. But in case they did not give the assistance asked, it was
certain that the Mamertines would look to the Carthaginians for succor; and
so Messana would come into the hands of their rivals.

THE ROMANS BUILD A FLEET. 251

committed them to a career of foreign conquest destined to con-
tinue till their arras had raade the circuit of the Mediterranean.

The Syracusans and Carthaginians, old enemies and rivals
though they had been, joined their forces against the insolent
new-comers. The allies were completely defeated in the first
battle, and the Roman army obtained a sure foothold upon the
island.

In the following year both consuls were placed at the head
of formidable armies for the conquest of Sicily. A large portion
of the island was quickly overrun, and many of the cities threw off
their allegiance to Syracuse and Carthage, and became allies of
Rome. Hiero, king of Syracuse, seeing that he was upon the
losing side, deserted the cause of the Carthaginians, and formed
an alliance with the Romans, and ever after remained their firm
friend.

The Romans build their First Fleet. — Their experience dur-
ing the past campaigns had shown the Romans that if they were
to cope successfully with the Carthaginians they must be able to
meet them upon the sea as well as upon the land. Not only did
the Carthaginian ships annoy the Sicilian coast towns which were
already in the hands of the Romans, but they even made descents
upon the shores of Italy, ravaged the fields and villages, and sailed
away \vith their booty before pursuit was possible. To guard their
shores and ward off these attacks, the Romans had no fleet. Their
Greek and Etruscan allies were, indeed, maritime peoples, and pos-
sessed considerable fleets, which were at the disposal of the Romans.
But these vessels were merely triremes, galleys with three banks of
oars ; while the Carthaginian ships were quinqueremes, or vessels
with five rows of oars. The former were worthless to cope with
the latter, such an advantage did these have in their greater weight
and height. So the Romans determined to build a fleet of quin-
queremes.

Now it so happened that, a little while before, a Carthaginian
galley had been wrecked upon the shore of Southern Italy. This
served as a pattern. It is said that within the almost incredibly

252 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.

short space of sixty days a growing forest was converted into a
fleet of one hundred and twenty war-galleys. While the ships
were building, the Roman soldiers were being trained in the duties
of sailors by practising in rowing, while sitting in lines on tiers of
benches built on the land. With the shore ringing with the
sounds of the hurried work upon the galleys, and crowded with
the groups of" make-beUeve rowers," the scene must have been a
somewhat animated as well as ludicrous one. Yet it all meant
very serious business.

The Romans gain their First Naval Victory (260 b.c). —
The consul C. Duillius was intrusted with the command of the
fleet. He met the Carthaginian squadron near the city and prom-
ontory of Mylae, on the northern coast of Sicily. A single pre-
caution gave the victory to the Romans. Distrusting their abiUty
to match the skill of their enemies in manoeuvring their ships, they
had provided each with a drawbridge, over thirty feet in length,
and wide enough for two persons to pass over it abreast. It was
raised and lowered by means of pulleys attached to the mast.
The Carthaginian galleys bore down swiftly upon the Roman ships,
thinking to pierce and sink with their brazen beaks the clumsv-
looking structures. The bridges alone saved the Roman fleet
from destruction. As soon as a Carthaginian ship came near
enough to a Roman vessel, the gangway was allowed to fall upon
the approaching galley ; and the long spike with which the end
was armed, piercing the deck, instantly pinned the vessels together.
The Roman soldiers, rushing along the bridge, were soon engaged
in a hand-to-hand conflict with their enemies, in which species of
encounter the former were sure of an easy victory. Fifty of the
Carthaginian galleys were captured; the remainder — there were
one hundred and thirty ships in the fleet — wisely refusing to rush
into the terrible and fatal embrace in which they had seen their
companions locked, turned their prows in flight.

The Romans had gained their first naval victory. The joy
at Rome was unbounded. It inspired, in the more sanguine,
splendid visions of maritime command and glory. The Medi-

THE WAR CARRIED INTO AFRICA.

253

terranean should speedily become a Roman lake, in which no
vessel might float without the consent of Rome. Duillius was
honored with a magnificent triumph, and the Senate ordained
that, in passing through the city to his home at night, he should
always be escorted with torches and music. In the Forum was
raised a splendid memorial column, "adorned with the brazen
beaks of the vessels which his wise
ignorance and his clumsy skill had en-
abled him to capture."

The Romans carry the War into
Africa. — The results of the naval en-
gagement at Mylae encouraged the
Romans to push the war with re-
doubled energy. They resolved to carry
it into Africa. An immense Cartha-
ginian fleet that disputed the passage
of the Roman squadron was almost
annihilated,^ and the Romans disem-
barked near Carthage. Atilius Regu-
lus, one of the consuls who led the
army of invasion, sent word to Rome
that he had "sealed up the gates of
Carthage with terror." Finally, how-
ever, Regulus suffered a crushing defeat
and was made prisoner.^ A fleet which
was sent to bear away the remnants
of the shattered army was wrecked in a terrific storm off me
coast of Sicily, and the shores of the island were strewn with the
wreckage of between two and three hundred ships and with the
bodies of 100,000 men.

Undismayed at the terrible disaster that had overtaken the

1 Near the Sicilian promontory of Ecnomus, 256 B.C.

2 The Carthaginians were at this-time commanded by an able Spartan gen-
eral, Xanthippus, who, with a small but disciplined band of Greek mercenaries,
had entered their service.

THE COLUMN OF DUILLIUS.
(A Restoration.)

254 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.

transport fleet, the Romans set to work to build another, and
made a second descent upon the African coast. The expedition,
however, accomplished nothing of importance ; and the fleet on
its return voyage was almost destroyed, just off the coast of Italy,
by a tremendous storm. The visions of naval supremacy awakened
among the Romans by the splendid victories of Mylse and Ecnomus
were thus suddenly dispelled by these two successive and appalling
disasters that had overtaken their armaments.

The Battle of Panormus (251 b.c). — For a few years the
Romans refrained from tempting again the hostile powers of the
sea. Sicily became the battle-ground where the war was con-
tinued, although with but little spirit on either side, until the arrival
in the island of the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal (251 B.C.).
He brought with him one hundred and forty elephants trained
in war. Of all the instruments of death which the Roman soldiers
were accustomed to face, none in the history of the legionaries
inspired them with such uncontrollable terror as these "wild
beasts," as they termed them. The furious rage with which these
monsters, themselves almost invulnerable to the darts of the enemy,
swept down the opposing ranks with their trunks, and tossed and
trampled to pieces the bodies of their victims, was indeed well
calculated to inspire a most exaggerated dread.

Beneath the walls of PaijgrmuSj^ the consul Metellus drew
Qfligiifljjjja^ i^to an engagement. He checked the terrific charge
of the war elephants by discharges of arrows dipped in flaming
pitch, which caused the frightened animals to rush back upon and
crush through the disordered ranks of the Carthaginians. The
result was a complete victory for the Romans. After the battle
the Romans induced the drivers of the elephants, which were
roaming over the field in a sort of panic, to capture and quiet
the creatures. Once in captivity, they were floated across the
Sicilian Straits on huge rafts, and to the number of twenty graced
the triumphal procession of 1V[^te1ln-^ After having been led
through the Forum and along the Via Sacra, they were conducted
to the Circus, and there slain in the presence of the assembled
multitudes.

REGULUS. 255

B-egnlus and the Carthaginian Embassy. — The result of the
battle of Panormus dispirited the Carthaginians. They sent an
embassy to Rome, to negotiate for peace, or, if that could not
be reached, to effect an exchange of prisoners. Among the com-
missioners was Regulus, who since his capture, five years before,
had been held a prisoner in Africa. Before setting out from
Carthage he had promised to return if the embassy were unsuc-
cessful. For the sake of his own release, the Carthaginians sup-
posed he would counsel peace, or at least urge an exchange of
prisoners. But it is related, that upon arrival at Rome, he coun-
selled war instead of peace, at the same time revealing to the
Senate the enfeebled condition of Carthage. As to the exchafige
of prisoners, he said, " Let those who have surrendered when they
ought to have died, die in the land which has witnessed their
disgrace."

The Roman Senate, following his counsel, rejected all the pro-
posals of the embassy ; and Regulus, in spite of the tears and en-
treaties of his wife and friends, turned away from Rome, and set
out for Carthage to meet death, which he well knew the Cartha-
ginians, in their disappointment and anger, would be sure to
inflict on him.

The tradition goes on to tell how, upon his arrival at Carthage,
he was confined in a cask driven full of spikes, and then left to
die of starvation and pain. This part of the tale has been dis-
credited, and the finest touches of the other portions are supposed ,
to have been added by the story-tellers.

Loss of Two More Roman Fleets. — After the failure of the
Carthaginian embassy, the war went op for several years by land
and sea with many vicissitudes. At last, on the coast of Sicily,
one of the consuls, Claudius, met with an overwhelming defeat.^
Almost a hundred vessels of his fleet were lost. The disaster
caused the greatest alarm at Rome. Superstition increased the
fears of the people. It was, reported that just before the battle,

^ In a sea-fight at Drepana, 249 B.C.

256 THE FIRST PUNIC WAR.

when the auspices were being taken, and the sacred chickens
would not eat, Claudius had given orders to have them thrown
into the sea, irreverently remarking, " At any rate, they shall drink."
Imagination was free to depict what further evils the offended
gods might inflict upon the Roman state.

The gloomiest forebodings might have found justification in
subsequent events. The other consul just now met with a great
disaster. He was proceeding along the southern coast of Sicily
with a squadron of eight hundred merchantmen and over one
hundred war-galleys, the former loaded with grain for the Roman
army on the island. A severe storm arising, the squadron was
beaten to pieces upon the rocks. Not a single ship escaped.
The coast for miles was strewn with broken planks, and with
bodies, and heaped with vast windrows of grain cast up by the
waves.

Close of the First Punic War. — The war had now lasted for
fifteen years. Four Roman fleets had been destroyed, three of
which had been sunk or broken to pieces by storms. Of the
fourteen hundred vessels which had been lost, seven hundred were
war-galleys, — all large and costly quinqueremes, that is, vessels
with five banks of oars. Only one hundred of these had fallen
into the hands of the enemy \ the remainder were a sacrifice to
the malign and hostile power of the waves. Such successive
blows from an invisible hand were enough to blanch the faces
even of the sturdy Romans. Neptune manifestly denied to the
" Children of Mars " the realm of the sea.

It was impossible for the six years following the last disaster to
infuse any spirit into the struggle. In 247 B.C., Hamilcar Barca,
the father of the great Hannibal, assumed the command of the
Carthaginian forces, and for several years conducted the war with
great ability on the island of Sicily, even making Rome tremble
for the safety of her Italian possessions.

Once more the Romans determined to commit their cause to
the element that had been so unfriendly to them. A fleet of two
hundred vessels was built and equipped, but entirely by private

CLOSE OF THE WAR. 257

subscription ; for the Senate feared that public sentiment would
not sustain them in levying a tax for fitting up another costly
armament as an offering to the insatiable Neptune. This people's
squadron, as we may call it, was intrusted to the command of the
consul Catulus. He met the Carthaginian fleet under the com-
mand of the admiral Hanno, near the ^^Egatiai^slands, and
inflicted upon it a crushing defeat (5241 b.c.) .

The Carthaginians now sued for peace. A treaty was at length
arranged, the terms of which required that Carthage should give up
all claims to the island of Sicily, surrender all her prisoners, and
pay an indemnity of 3200 talents (about $4,000,000), one-third
of which was to be paid down, and the balance in ten yearly pay-
ments. Thus ended (241 b.c), after a continuance of twenty-
four years, the first great struggle between Carthage and Rome.

258 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.

CHAPTER IV.

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.

(218-201 B.C.)

Rome between the First and the Second Punic War.

The First Roman Province. — For the twenty-three years that
followed the close of the first struggle between Rome and Car-
thage, the two rivals strained every power and taxed every
resource in preparation for a renewal of the contest.

The Romans settled the affairs of Sicily, organizing all of it,
save the lands belonging to Syracuse, as a province of the
republic. This was the first territory beyond the limits of Italy
that Rome had conquered, and the SiciUan the first of Roman
provinces. But as the imperial city extended her conquests, her
provincial possessions increased in number and size until they
formed at last a perfect cordon about the Mediterranean. Each
province was governed by a magistrate sent out from the capita],
and paid an annual tribute, or tax, to Rome.

Rome acquires Sardinia and Corsica. — The first acquisition
by the Romans of lands beyond the peninsula seems to have
created in them an insatiable ambition for foreign conquests.
They soon found a pretext for seizing the island of Sardinia,
the most ancient, and, after Sicily, the most prized of the pos-
sessions of the Carthaginians. An insurrection breaking out
upon the island, the Carthaginians were moving to- suppress
it, when the Romans insolently commanded them not only to
desist from their military preparations (pretending that they
believed them a threat against Rome), but to surrender Sardinia,
and, moreover, to pay a fine of 1200 talents (^1,500,000). Car-
thage, exhausted as she was, could do nothing but comply.

y.

'^

K/

C^ ,v>^'

D I A

Utk-

Zuma^

U U li"

THE MEDITERRANEAN LANDS

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE

SECOND PUNIC WAR

Roman JV^ssess/ons and AUiea \ | Free Greek StateH \ \

Carthaginian " " {^-^ J Syrian Poasesslona | |

Macedonian ^//M Egyptian " | |

LL-Poalu, Kngr., N.Y.

THE CORSAIRS ARE PUNISHED. 259

The meanness and perfidy of the Romans in this matter made
more bitter and implacable, if that were possible, the Cartha-
ginian hatred of the Roman race. Sardinia, in connection
with Corsica, which was also seized, was formed into a Roman
province. With her hands upon these islands, the authority of
Rome in the Western, or Tuscan Sea was supreme.

The Illjrrian Corsairs are punished. — In a more legitimate
way the Romans extended their influence over the seas that
wash the eastern shores of Italy. For a long time the Adriatic
and Ionian waters had been infested with Illyrian pirates, who
issued from the roadsteads of the northeastern coasts of the
former sea. These buccaneers not only scoured the seas for
merchantmen, but troubled the Hellenic towns along the shores
of Greece, and were even so bold as to make descents upon
the Italian coasts. The Roman fleet chnserl thf^gp rnrt;air<^
fjiyjj^Jilfi,„^yiaatU^_^ji^captured several of their strongholds.
Rome now assumed a sort of protectorate over the Greek cities
of the Adriatic coasts. This was her first step towards final
supremacy in Macedonia and Greece.

War with the Gauls. — In the north, during this same period,
Roman authority was extended from the Apennines and the Ru-
bicon to the foot of the Alps. Alarmed at the advance of the
Romans, who were pushing northward their great military road,
called the Flaminian Way, and also settling with discharged sol-
diers and needy citizens the tracts of frontier land wrested some
time before from the Gauls, the Boii, a tribe of that race, stirred up
all the Gallic peoples already in Italy, besides their kinsmen who
were yet beyond the mountains, for an assault upon Rome. In-
telligence of this movement among the northern tribes threw all
Italy into a fever of excitement. At Rome the^jjj^r was great ;
for not yet had died out of memory what the city had once suf-
fered at the hands of the ancestors of these same barbarians that
were now again gathering their hordes for sack and pillage. An
ancient prediction, found in the Sibylline books, declared that a
portion of Roman territory must needs be occupied by Gauls.

260 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.

Hoping sufficiently to fulfil the prophecy and satisfy fate, the
Roman Senate caused two Gauls to be buried alive in one of the
public squares of the capital.

Meanwhile the barbarians had advanced into Etruria, ravaging
the country as they moved southward. After gathering a large
amount of booty, they were carrying this back to a place of safety,
when they were surrounded by the Roman armies at Telamon, and
almost annihilated (225 B.C.). The Romans, taking advantage of
this victory, pushed on into the plains of the Po, captured the city
which is now known as TV[i|tin. and extended their authority to
the foot-hills of the Alps. To guard the new territory, two mili-
tary colonies, Placentia and Cmnona^ were established upon the
opposite banks of the Po.

Carthage between the First and the Second Punic War.

The Truceless War. — Scarcely had peace been concluded with
Rome at the end of the First Punic War, before Carthage was
plunged into a still deadlier struggle, which for a time threatened
her very existence. The n^gjj^gg^j^troops, upon their return from
Sicilv. revolted, on account of not receiving their pay. Their
appeal to the nativ^Jj^es of Africa was answered by a general
uprising throughout the dependencies of Carthage. The extent
of the revolt shows how hateful and hated was the rule of the great
capital over her subject states.

The war was unspea^4>ly bitter _ and cruel. It is known in his-
tory as "The Truceless War." At one time Carthage was the only
city remaining in the hands of the government. But the genius
of the great Carthaginian general, Hamilcar Barca, at last tri-
umphed, and the authority of Carthage was everywhere restored.

The Carthaginians in Spain. — After the disastrous termination
of the First Punic War, the Carthaginians determined to repair
their losses by new conquests in Spain. Hamilcar Barca. was sent
over into that country, and for ^jjjjg years he devoted his com-
manding genius to organizing the different Iberian tribes into a

HANNIBADS VOW. 261

compact state, and to developing the rich gold and silver mines of
the southern part of the peninsula. He fell in battle 228 B.C.

Hamilcar Barca was the greatest general that up to this time the
Carthaginian race had produced. As a rule, genius is not trans-
mitted ; but in the Barcine family the rule was broken, and the
rare genius of Hamilcar reappeared in his sons, whom he himself,
it is said, was fond of calling the " lion's brood." Hannibal, the
oldest, was only nineteen at the time of his father's death, and
being thus too young to assume command, Hasdrubal,^ the son-
in-law of Hamilcar, was chosen to succeed him. He carried out
the unfinished plans of Hamilcar, extended and consolidated the
Carthaginian power in Spain, and upon the eastern coast founded
New Carthage as the centre and capital of the newly acquired ter-
ritory. The native tribes were conciliated rather than conquered.
The Barcine family knew how to rule as well as how to fight.

Hannibal's Vow. — Upon the death of Hasdrubal, which oc-
curred 221 B.C., Hannibal, now twenty-six years of age, was by the
unanimous voice of the army called to be their leader. When a
child of nine years he had been led by his father to the altar : and
there, with his hands upon the sacrifice, the little boy had sworn
eternal hatred to the Roman race. He was driven on to his
gigantic undertakings and to his hard fate, not only by the restless
fires of his warlike genius, but, as he himself declared, by the
sacred obligations of a vow that could not be broken.

Hannibal attacks Sagnntum. — In two years Hannibal extended
the Carthaginian power to the Ebro. Sapij^^im. a Greek city
upon the east coast of Spain, alone remained unsubdued. The
Romans, who were jealously watching affairs in the peninsula, had
entered into an alliance with this city, and taken it, with other
Greek cities in that quarter of the Mediterranean, under their pro-
tection. Hannibal, although he well knew that an attack upon
this place would precipitate hostilities with Rome, laid siege to it

1 Not to be confounded with Hannibal's own brother, Hasdrubal. See
p. 271.

262 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.

in the spring of 219 B.C. He was eager for the renewal of the old
contest. The Roman Senate sent messengers to him forbidding
his making war upon a city which was a friend and ally of the
Roman people ; but Hannibal, disregarding their remonstrances,
continued the siege, and after an investment of eight months
gained possession of the town.

The Romans now sent commissioners to Carthage to demand
of the Senate that they should give up Hannibal to them, and by
so doing repudiate the act of their general. The Carthaginians
hesitated. Then Quintus Fabius, chief of the embassy, gathering
up his toga, said : " I carry here peace and war ; choose, men of
Carthage, which ye will have." " Give us whichever ye will," was
the reply. "War, then," said Fabius, dropping his toga. The
" die was now cast ; and the arena was cleared for the foremost,
perhaps the mightiest, military genius of any race and of any
time."^

The Second Punic War.

Hannibal begins Ms March. — The Carthaginian empire was
now stirred with preparations for the impending struggle. Han-
nibal was the life and soul of every movement. He planned and
executed. The Carthaginian Senate acquiesced in and tardily
confirmed his acts. His bold plan was to cross the Pyrenees and
the Alps and descend upon Rome from the north. He secured
the provinces in Spain and Africa by placing garrisons of Iberians
in Africa and of Libyans in the pejjyjgula. Ambassadors were sent
among the Gallic tribes on both sides of the Alps, to invite them to
be ready to join the army that would soon set out from Spain.

With these preparations completed, Hannibal left New Carthage
early in the spring of 218 b.c, with an army numbering about
100.000 men, and including thirty-seven war-elephants. A hostile
country lay between him and the Pyrenees. Through the warlike
tribes that resisted his march he forced his way to the foot of the

^ Smith's Carthage and Rome, p. 114.

264

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.

mountains that guard the northern frontier of Spain. More than
20.ooO-of his soldiers were lost in this part of his march.

Passage of the Pyrenees and the Rhone. — Leaving a strong
force to garrison the newly conquered lands, and discharging
lo.ooo more of his men who had begun to murmur because of
their hardships, he pushed on *vith the remainder across the
Pyrenees, and led them down into the valley of the Rhone. The
Gauls attempted to dispute the passage of the river, but they
were routed, and the army was ferried across the stream in native

boats and on rudely constructed rafts.
Passage of the Alps. — Hannibal
now followed up the course of the
Rhone, and then one of its eastern
tributaries, the Isere, until he reached
the foot-hills of the Alps, probably
under the pass of the Little St. Ber-
nard. Nature and man joined to op-
pose the passage. The season was
already far advanced, — it was Octo-
ber, — and snow was falling upon the
higher portions of the trail. Day after
day the army toiled painfully up the
dangerous path. In places the narrow
way had to be cut wider for the
monstrous bodies of the elephants. Often avalanches of stone
were hurled upon the trains by the hostile bands that held posses-
sion of the heights above. At last the summit was gained, and
the shivering army looked down into the warm haze of the Italian
plains. The sight alone was enough to rouse the drooping spirits
of the soldiers ; but Hannibal stirred them to enthusiasm by
reminding them that they were standing upon the citadel of Italy,
and that Rome lay in the plain beyond. The army began its
descent, and at length, after toils and losses equalled only by those
of the ascent, its thin battalions issued from the defiles of the
mountains upon the plains of the Po. Of the 50,000 men and

HANNIBAL.

BATTLES OF THE TICTNUS, TREBIA, ETC. 265

more with which Hannibal had begun the passage, barely half
that number had survived the march, and these "looked more
like phantoms than men."

Battles of the Ticinus, the Trebia, and of Lake Trasime-
nus. — The Romans had not the remotest idea of Hannibal's
plans. With war determined upon, the Senate had sent one of
the consuls, Ti. Sempronius Longus. with an army into Africa by
the way of Sicily ; while the other, Publius Cornelius Scipio, they
had directed to lead another army into Spain.

While the Senate were watching the movements of these expe-
ditions, they were startled with the intelligence that Hannibal,
instead of being in Spain, had crossed the Pyrenees and was
among the Gauls upon the Rhone. Sempronius was hastily
recalled from his attempt upon Africa, to the defence of Italy,
Scipio, on his way to Spain, had touched at MassiUa, and there
learned of the movements of Hannibal. He turned back, hur-
ried into Northern Italy, and took command of the levies there.
The cavalry of the two armies met upon the banks of the Ticinus,
a tributary of the Po. The Romans were driven from the field
by the fierce onset of the Numidian horsemen. Scipio now
awaited the arrival of the other consular army, which was hurrying
up through Italy by forced marches.

In the battle of the '£jg]jjg. (218 B.C.) the united armies of the
two consuls were almost annihilated. The refugees that escaped
from the field sought shelter behind the walls of Placentia. The
Gauls, who had been waiting to see to which side fortune would
incline, now flocked to the standard of Hannibal, and hailed him
as their deliverer.

The spring following the victory at the Trebia, Hannibal led
his army, now recruited by many Gauls, across the Apennines,
and moved southward. At Lake Trasimenus he entrapped the
Romans under Flaminius in a mountain defile, where, bewildered
by a fog that filled the valley, the greater part of the army was
slaughtered, and the consul himself was slain.

Hannibal's Policy. — The way to Rome was now open. Be-

266 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.

lieving that Hannibal would march directly upon the capital, the
Senate caused the bridges that spanned the Tiber to be destroyed,
and appointed Fabius Maximus dictator. But Hannibal did not
deem it wise to throw his troops against the walls of Rome.
Crossing the Apennines, he touched the Adriatic at Picenum,
whence he sent messages to Carthage of his wonderful achieve-
ments. Here he rested his army after a march that has few
parallels in the annals of war.

In one respect only had events disappointed Hannibal's ex-
pectations. He had thought that all the states of Italy were, like
the Gauls, ready to revolt from Rome at the first opportunity that
might offer itself. But not a single city had thus far proved
unfaithful to Rome. The aid which Hannibal expected from the
Italians, and which he invited by the kindest treatment of those
who fell into his hands as prisoners, he was destined never to
receive.

Fabins "the Delayer." — The dictator Fabius, at the head of
four new legions, started in pursuit of Hannibal, who was again on
the move. The fate of Rome was in the hands of Fabius. Should
he risk a battle and lose it, the destiny of the capital would be
sealed. He determined to adopt a more prudent policy — to
follow and annoy the Carthaginian army, but to refuse all proffers
of battle. Thus time might be gained for raising a new army
and perfecting measures for the public defence. In every possible
way Hannibal endeavored to draw his enemy into an engagement.
He ravaged the fields far and wide and fired the homesteads of
the Italians, in order to force Fabius to fight in their defence.
The soldiers of the dictator began to murmur. They called him
Cunctator, or •" the Delayer." i'hey even accused him of treach-
ery to the cause of Rome. But nothing moved him from the
steady pursuit of the policy which he clearly saw was the only
prudent one to follow. Hannibal marched through Samnium,
desolating the country as he went, and then descended upon the
rich plains of Campania. Fabius followed him closely, and from
the mountains, which he wpuld not allow his soldiers to leave, they

THE POLICY OF FAB I US VINDICATED. 267

were obliged to watch, with such calmness as they might com-
mand, the devastations of the enemy going on beneath their very
eyes. They besought Fabius to lead them down upon the plain,
where they might at least strike a blow in defence of their homes.
Fabius was unmoved by their clamor. He planned, however, to
entrap Hannibal. Knowing that the enemy could not support
themselves in Campania through the approaching winter, bui
must recross the mountains into Agulia, he placed a strong guard
in the pass by which they must retreat, and then quietly awaited
their movements. Hannibal, we are told, resorted to stratagem
to draw away the defenders of the mountain path. To the horns
of two thousand oxen he caused burning torches to be fastened,
and then these animals were driven one night up among the hills
that overhung the pass. These creatures, frantic with pain and
fright, rushed along the ranges that bordered the pass, and led
the watchers there to believe that the Carthaginians were forcing
their way over the hills in a grand rush. Straightway the guardians
of the pass left their position to intercept the flying enemy. While
they were pursuing the cattle, Hannibal marched quietly with all
his booty through the unguarded defile, and escaped into Samnium.
The Policy of Fabins vindicated. — The escape of the Car-
thaginian army caused the. smothered discontent with Fabius and
his policy to break out into open opposition, both among the citi-
zens at the capital and the soldiers in the camp. Minucius, com-
mander of the cavalry, disobeyed the orders of the dictator to
refrain from any engagement with the enemy, and was so fortunate
as to gain a slight success. This brought matters to a crisis. By
a vote of the public assembly Miiyjgjy^was made co-dictator with
Fabius. He now sought an engagement with the Carthaginians.
An opportunity soon presented itself. But fortune was against
him ; and had it not been for the timely assistance of Fabius, his
forces would have been cut to pieces. Minucius at once acknowl-
edged the rashness of his policy, and took again his old position
as a subordinate; while Fabius, by universal acclamation, was
declared the " Savior of Rome."

268

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.

The Battle of Cannae (216 b.c). — The time gained by Fabius
had enabled the Romans to raise and discipline an army that
might hope to combat successfully the Carthaginian forces. Early
in the summer of the year 216 B.C., these new levies, number-
ing 80,000 men, under the command of the two consuls,^ con-
fronted the army of Hannibal, amounting to not more than half
that number, at Cannae, in Apulia. It was the largest army the

Romans had ever gathered on any battle-field. But it had been
collected only to meet the most overwhelming defeat that ever
befell the forces of the republic. Through the skilful manoeu-
vres of Hannibal, the Romans were completely surrounded, and

1 The dictatorship of Fabius Maximus had expired. The patrician consul
was named Lucius iEmilius Paul us; the plebeian, Gaius Terentius Varro.
They were divided in counsel, and it was the rashness of Varro that precipi-
tated the battle. The yearly change of their chief magistrates was a source of
weakness and loss to the Romans in tipie of war. The popular vote frequently
failed to secure experienced generals. «&emagogues often controlled the elec-
tion, as at Athens in the times of Cleon and Alcibiades. See History of Greece,
pp. 94-97.

EVENTS AFTER THE BATTLE OF CANNAE. 269

huddled together in a helpless mass upon the field, and then for
eight hours were cut down by the Numidian cavalry. From fifty
to seventy thousand were slain ; a few thousand were taken pris-
oners; only the merest handful escaped, including one of the
consuls. The slaughter wa3 so great that, according to Livy, when
Mago, a brother of Hannibal, carried the news of the victory to
Carthage, he, in confirmation of the intelhgence, poured down in
the porch of the Senate-house nearly a peck of gold rings taken
fi-om the fingers of Roman knights.

Events after the Battle of Cannae. — The awful news flew to
Rome. Consternation and despair seized the people. The city
would have been emptied of its population had not the Senate
ordered the gates to be closed. Never did that body display
greater calmness, wisdom, prudence, and resolution. By word
and act they bade the people never to despair of the republic.
Little by little the panic was allayed. Measures were concerted
for the defence of the capital, as it was expected that Hannibal
would immediately march upon Rome. Swift horsemen were
sent out along the Appian Way to gather information of the con-
queror's movements, and to learn, as Livy expresses it, "if the
immortal gods, out of pity to the empire, had left any remnant of
the Roman name."

The leader of the Numidian cavalry, Maharbal, urged Hanni-
bal to follow up his victory closely. " Let me advance with the
cavalry," said he, "and in five days thou shalt dine in the capi-
tal." But Hannibal refused to adopt the counsel of his impetuous
general. Maharbal turned away, and with mingled reproach and
impatience exclaimed, "Alas ! thou knowest how to gain a vic-
tory, but not how to use one." The great commander, while he
knew he was invincible in the open field, did not think it prudent
to fight the Romans behind their walls.

Hannibal now sent an embassy to Rome to offer terms of peace.
The Senate, true to the Appjan policy never to treat with a vic-
torious enemy (see p. 246), would not even permit the ambassa-
dors to enter the gates. Not less disappointed was Hannibal in

270 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.

the temper of the Roman allies. For the most part they adhered
to the cause of Rome with unshaken loyalty through all these
trying times. Some tribes in the south of Italy, however, among
which were the Lucanians, the Apulians, and the Bruttians, went
over to the Carthaginians. Hannibal marched into Campania and
quartered his army for the winter in the luxurious city of Capua/
which had opened its gates to him. Here he rested and sent
urgent messages to Carthage for reinforcements, while Rome ex-
hausted every resource in raising and equipping new levies, to
take the place of the legions lost at Cannae. For several years
there was an ominous lull in the war, while both parties were
gathering strength for a renewal of the struggle.

The Fall of Syracuse and of Capua. — In the year 216 b.c,
Hiero, king of Syracuse, who loved to call himself the friend and
ally of the Roman people, died, and the government fell into the
hands of a party unfriendly to the republic. An alliance was
formed with Carthage, and a large part of Sicily was carried over
to the side of the enemies of Rome. The distinguished Roman
general, Marcus Claudius Marcellua, called " the Sword of Rome,"
was intrusted with the task of reconquering the island. After
reducing many towns, he at last laid siege to Syracuse.

This noted capital was then one of the largest and richest cities
of the Grecian world. Its walls were strong, and enclosed an area
eighteen miles in circuit. For three years it held out against the
Roman forces. It is said that Archimedes, the great mathema-
tician, rendered valuable aid to the besieged with curious and
powerful engines contrived by his genius. But the city fell at last,

^ Hannibal's soldiers, according to Livy, were fatally enervated both in their
bodies and their minds by the influences of this Sybarite capital. The winter
was spent by them in a round of feasting, drinking, bathing, and indulgences
of all kinds, so that almost every trace of former vigor and discipline was lost.
It is the opinion of persons versed in the art of war, adds the historian, that
Hannibal, in taking up his winter quarters in Capua, committed a greater error
than when he neglected to march upon Rome after the battle of Cannae.
XXIII. 18.

THE FALL OF SYRACUSE.

271

MARCELLUS, "The Sword of Rome."

and was given over to pillage (212 B.C.). Rome was adorned
with the rare works of Grecian art — paintings and sculptures — ■
which for centuries had been
accumulating in this the oldest
and most renowned of the col-
onies of ancient Hellas. Syra-
cuse never recovered from the
blow inflicted upon her at this
time by the relentless Romans.

Capua must next be punished for opening her gates and ex-
tending her hospitalities to the enemies of Rome. A line of cir-
cumvallation was drawn about the devoted city, and two Roman
armies held it in close siege. Hannibal, ever faithful to his allies
and friends, hastened to the relief of the Capuans. Unable to
break the enemy's lines, he marched directly upon Rome, as if
to make an attack upon that city, hoping thus to draw off the
legions about Capua to the defence of the capital. The " dread
Hannibal " himself rode alongside the walls of the hated city, and,
tradition says, even hurled a defiant spear over the defences.
The Romans certainly were trembling with fear; yet Livy tells
how they manifested their confidence in their affairs by selling at
pubhc auction the land upon which Hannibal was encamped.
He in turn, in the same manner, disposed of the shops fronting
the Forum. The story is that there were eager purchasers in
both cases.

Failing to draw the legions from Capua as he had hoped, Han-
nibal now retired from before Rome, and, retreating into the
southern part of Italy, ^anrlnnpd rnpnn tn I'tq fatp. It soon fell
and paid the penalty that Rome never failed to inflict upon an
unfaithful ally. The chief men in the city were put to death, and
a large part of the inhabitants sold as slaves (211 B.C.). Capua
had aspired to the first place among the cities of Italy : scarcely
more than the name of the ambitious capital now remained.

Hasdrubal in Spain. — During all the years Hannibal was
waging war in Italy, his brother Hasdrubal was carrying on a

272 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.

desperate struggle with the Romans in Spain. His plan was to
gather and lead an army into Italy to the aid of his brother. This
the Romans made every effort to prevent. Hence, even while
Hannibal was threatening Rome itself, we find the Senate sending
its best legions and generals across the sea into Spain. But Has-
drubal possessed much of the martial genius of his brother, and
proved more than a match for the Scipips who commanded the
Roman levies. Yet the fortunes of war were more fickle here
than in Italy. At one time the Carthaginians were almost driven
out of the peninsula; and then the whole was regained by the
genius of Hasdrubal, and the two Scipios ^ were slain. Another
army, under the command of Publius Cornelius Scipio. was sent
to regain it and keep Hasdrubal engaged. The war was renewed,
but without decided results on either side, and Hasdrubal deter-
mined to leave its conduct to others, and go to the rehef of his
brother, who was sadly in need of aid ; for the calamities of war
were constantly thinning his ranks. Like Pyrrhus, he had been
brought to reahze that even constant victories won by the loss of
soldiers that could not be replaced meant final defeat.

Battle of the Metaurus (207 b.c). — Hasdrubal followed the
same route that had been taken by his brother Hannibal, and in
the year 207 B.C. descended from the Alps upon the plains of
Northern Italy. Thence he advanced southward, while Hannibal
moved northward from Bruttium to meet him. Rome made a
last effort to ward off the double danger. One hundred and forty
thousand men were put into the field. One of the consuls, Gaius
Q^UC^ius^Tgjj^ was to obstruct Hannibal's march ; while the other,
Marcus T.ivins. was to oppose Hasdrubal in the north. The great
effort of the Roman generals was to prevent the junction of the
armies of the two brothers. Hasdrubal pressed on southward and
crossed the Mei-?mrn<;. From here he sent a message to Han-
nibal, appointing a meeting-place only two days' march from

1 Publius and Gnaeus Scipio, brothers. Publius Cornelius Scipio was the
son of the aforementioned Publius Scipio.

H^A/i IN AFRICA.

TIZ

Rome. The messenger fell into the hands of the consul Nero.
In a moment Nero's plan was formed. With seven thousand
picked soldiers he hastened northward, to join the other consul
and, with their united forces, to crush Hasdrubal before his
brother should know of the movement. In a few days Nero
reached the camp of his colleague Livius, in front of which lay
the Carthaginian army. As the soldiers of Nero entered the
camp of his associate in the night, Hasdrubal knew nothing of
their arrival until the next morning, when he observed that the
trumpet sounded twice from the enemy's camp. Fearing to risk
a battle, he attempt-
ed to fall back across
the Metaurus. Mis-
led by his guides, he
was forced to turn
and give battle to
the pursuing Romans.
His army was entire-
ly destroyed, and he
himself was slain
(207 B.c).

Nero now hurried
back to face Hanni-
bal, bearing with him the head of Hasdrubal. This bloody tro-
phy he caused to be hurled into the Carthaginian camp. Upon
recognizing the features of his brother, Hannibal exclaimed sadly,
" Carthage. I see thv fate."

War in Africa: Battle of Zama (202 b.c). — The defeat and
death of Hasdrubal gave a different aspect to the war. Hannibal
now drew back into the rocky peninsula of Bruttium, the southern-
most point of Italy. There he faced the Romans like a lion at
bay. No one dared attack him. It was resolved to carry the
war into Africa, in hopes that the Carthaginians would be forced
to call their great commander out of Italy to the defence of
Carthage. Publius Corn^liug_Scipio, who after the departure of

PUBLIUS CORNELIUS SCIPIO (Africanus).

274 THE SECOND PUNIC WAR.

Hasdrubal from Spain had quickly brought the peninsula under
the power of Rome, led the army of invasion. He had not been
long in Africa before the Carthaginian Senate sent for Hannibal
to conduct the war. At Zama, not far from Carthage, the hostile
armies came face to face. Fortune had deserted Hannibal; he
was fighting against fate. He here met his first and final defeat.
His army, in which were many of the veterans that had served
through all the Italian campaigns, was almost annihilated (202 b.c).

The Close of the War. — Carthage was now completely ex-
hausted, and sued for peace. Even Hannibal himself could no
longer counsel war. The terms of the treaty were much severer
than those imposed upon the city at the end of the First Punic
War. She was required to give up all claims to Spain and the
islands of the Mediterranean ; to surrender her war elephants,
and all her ships of war save ten galleys j to pay an indemnity of
five thousand talents ^ at once, and two hundred and fifty talents
annually for fifty years ; and not, under any circumstances, to
make war upon an ally of Rome. Five hundred of the costly
Phoenician war-galleys were towed out of the harbor of Carthage
and burned in the sight of the citizens (201 B.C.).

Such was the end of the Second Punic, or Hannibalic War, as
called by the Romans, the most desperate struggle ever main-
tained by rival powers for empire. Scipio was accorded a
splendid triumph at Rome, and given the surname Africanus in
honor of his achievements. . -A.

J- About ^6,2§^eoo.

X*

THE BATTLE OF CYNOSCEPHAL^. 275

CHAPTER V.

THE THIRD PUNIC WAR.

(149-146 B.C.)

Events between the Second and the Third Punic War.

The terms imposed upon Carthage at the end of the Second
Punic War left Rome mistress of the Western Mediterranean.
During the fifty eventful years that elapsed between the close of
that struggle and the breaking out of the last Punic war, her
authority became supreme also in the Eastern seas. In another
place,^ while narrating the fortunes of the most important states
into which the great empire of Alexander was broken at his death,
we followed them until one after another they fell beneath the_
arms of Rome, and were successively ab.sorbed into her growing
kingdom. We shall therefore speak of them here only in the
briefest manner, simply indicating the connection of their several
histories with the series of events which mark the advance of
Rome to universal empire.

The Battle of Cynoscephalse (197 b.c). — During the Hanni-
balic War, Philip V. (III.) of Macedonia had aided the (^^s^-

with them. He was now troijjjiiag the Greek
cities which were under the protection of
;^^jme. For these things the Roman Senate
determined to punish him. An army under
Flamininus was sent into Greece, and on the
plains of Cvnoscenhalae, in Thessaly, the Ro-

, . -J ^ ■ J .^ . .^ PHILIP v., of Macedonia.

man legion demonstrated its supenonty over

the unwieldy Macedonian phalanx ^ by subjecting Ph*p to a most

' See History of Greue, pp. 122, 130. ^ Ibui., p. 108, note.

276 THE THIRD PUNIC WAR.

disastrous defeat (197 B.C.). The king was forced to give up all
his conquests, and the Greek cities that had been in subjection to
Macedonia were declared free. Flamininus read the edict of
emancipation to the Greeks assembled at Corinth for the celebra-
tion of the Isthmian games. The decree was received with the
greatest enthusiasm and rejoicing, and Flamininus was called by
the grateful Greeks the Restorer of Greek liberties. Unfortu-
nately the Greeks had lost all capacity for freedom and self-
government, and the anarchy into which their affairs soon fell
afforded the Romans an excuse for extending their rule over
Greece.

The Battle of Magnesia (190 b.c). — Antiochus the Great of
Syria had at this time not only overrun all Asia Minor, but had

ANTIOCHUS THE GREAT.

crossed the Hellespont into Europe, and was intent upon the
conquest of Thrace and Greece. Rome, that could not entertain
the fdea of a rival empire upon the southern shores of the Medi-
terranean, could much leSs tolerate the establishment in the *ast
of such a colossal kingdom as the ambition of Antiochus proposed
to itself. Just as soon as intelligence was carried to Italy that the
Syrian king was leading his army into Greece, the legions oPtHe
republic were set in motion. Some reverses caused Antiochus to
retreat in haste across the Hellespont into Asia, whither he was
followed by the Romans, led by Scipio. a brother of Africanus.

At Magnesia, Antiochus was overthrown, and a large part of Asia
Minor fell into the hands of the Romans. Not yet prepared to
maintain provinces so distant from the Tiber, the Senate conferred

THE BATTLE OF PYDNA.

211

the new territory, with the exception of Lycia and Caria, which
were given to the Rhodians, upon their friend and ally Eumenes,
king of Pergamus.^ This " Kingdom of Asia," as it was called,
was really nothing more than a dependency of Rome, and its
nominal ruler only a puppet-king in the hands of the Roman
Senate.

Scipio enjoyed a magnificent triumph at Rome, and, in accord-
ance with a custom that had now become popular with successful
generals, erected a memorial of his deeds in his name by assum-
ing the title of Asiaticus.

The Battle of Pydna (i68 b.c). — In a few years Macedonia,
under the leadership of Perseus, son of
Philip v., was again in arms and offering
defiance to Rome ; but in the year i68 b.c.
the Roman consul ^milius Paulus crushed
the Macedonian power forever upon the
memorable field of Pjjjjja. This was one
of the decisive battles fought by the Ro-
mans in their struggle for the dominion of
the world. The last great power in the
East was here broken. The Roman Senate was henceforth recog-
nized by the whole civilized world as the source and fountain
of supreme political wisdom and power. We shall have yet to
record many campaigns of the Roman legions ; but these were
efforts to suppress revolt among dependent or semi-vassal states,
or were struggles with barbarian tribes that skirted the Roman
dominions.

The Destruction of Corinth (146 b.c). — Barely twenty years
had passed after the destruction of the Macedonian monarchy
before the cities and states that formed the Achaean League'' were
goaded to revolt by the injustice of their Roman protectors. In
the year 146 b.c. the consul Mummius signalized the suppression
of the rebellion by the complete destruction of the brilliant city of

PERSEUS, of Macedonia.

^ S^G History 0/ Greece, p. 125, note. "^ Ibid., p. 129.

278 THE THIRD PUNIC WAR.

Corinth, the "eye of Hellas," as in expressive figure it has been
called. This fair capital, the most beautiful and renowned of all
the cities of Greece after the fall of Athens, was sacked and razed
to the ground. Much of the booty was sold on the spot at pub-
lic auction. Numerous works of art, — rare paintings and sculp-
tures, — with which the city was crowded, were carried off to Italy.
" Never before or after," says Long, " was such a display of the
wonders of Grecian art carried in triumphal procession through
the streets of Rome."

The Fate of Hannibal and of Scipio. — Among the many events
that crowded the brief period we are reviewing, we must not fail
to notice the fate of the two great actors in the Hannibalic War.
Soon after the battle of Zama, and the treaty between Carthage
and Rome, Hannibal was chosen to the chief magistracy of the
former city. In this position he introduced much-needed reform
into every department of the government, and secured to the capi-
tal a period of prosperity and rapid growth. But his measures
stirred up not only enmity at home, but jealousy at Rome. The
Roman Senate, fearing Hannibal as a statesman as much as they
dreaded him as a general, demanded of the Carthaginians his
surrender. While they were .deliberating whether to give up their
great commander, Hannibal fled across the sea to Ephesus, in
Asia Minor. Here he was received by Aptiochus with such marks
of honor as became his deeds and genius.

Upon the defeat of Antiochus at Magnesia, the Romans de-
manded that Hannibal should be given up to them. Again the
exile fled from his implacable foes, and at last found a refuge
with the prince of Bithynia, in a remote district of Asia Minor.
Yet even there Roman hatred pursued him. It seemed as though
there was no spot in all the world where the arm of Rome did
not reach. His new friend could not shield him ; and, deter-
mined not to fall into the hands of his foes, Hannibal took his
own life by means of poison, and died faithful to his vow of eter-
nal hatred to the Roman race (about 183 B.C.).

Almost equally bitter was the cup which the ungrateful Romans

"CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED." 279

forced to the lips of the conqueror of Hannibal. After the battle
of Tjaxciz., Scipio Africanus gave himself to politics, but soon raised
about himself a perfect storm of unmerited abuse and persecution.
Leaving Rome, he went into a sort of voluntary exile at his coun-
try-seat near Litemum, in Campania. He died about the same
time that witnessed the death of Hannibal. Upon his tomb was
placed this inscription, which he himself had dictated : " Ungrate-
ful country, thou shalt not possess even my ashes."

The Third Punic War.

" Carthage must be destroyed." — The same year that Rome
destroyed Corinth (146 B.C.), she also blotted her great rival Car-
thage from the face of the earth. It will be recalled that one of
the conditions imposed upon the last-named city at the close of
the Second Punic War was that she should, under no circumstances,
engage in war with an ally of Rome. Taking advantage of the
helpless condition of Carthage, Masinissa, king of Numidia and
an ally of Rome, began to make depredations upon her territories.
She appealed to Rome for protection. The envoys sent to Africa
by the Senate to settle the dispute, unfairly adjudged every case in
favor ofirhe robber Masinissa. In this way Carthage was deprived
of her lands and towns.

Chief of one of the embassies sent out was Marcus Cato, the
Censor. When he saw the prosperity of Carthage, — her immense
trade, which crowded her harbor with ships, and the country for
miles back of the city a beautiful landscape of gardens and villas,
— he was amazed at the growing power and wealth of the city,
and returned home convinced that the safety of Rome demanded
the destruction of her rival. Never aftenvards did he address the
Romans, no matter upon what subject, but he always ended with
the words, " Carthage must be destroyed" {delenda est Carthago).

Boman Perfidy. — A pretext for the accomplishment of the
hateful work was not long wanting. In 150 B.C. the Carthagin-
ians, when Masinissa made another attack upon their territory,

280 THE THIRD PUNIC WAR.

instead of calling upon Rome, from which source the past had
convinced them they could hope for neither aid nor justice,
gathered an army, and resolved to defend themselves. Their
forces, however, were defeated by the Numidians, and sent
beneath the yoke.

In entering upon this war Carthage had broken the conditions
of the last treaty. The Carthaginian Senate, in great anxiety, now
sent an embassy to Italy to offer any reparation the Romans
might demand. They were told that if they would give three
hundred hostages, members of the noblest Carthaginian families,
the independence of their city should be respected. They eagerly
complied with this demand. But no sooner were these in
the hands of the Romans than the consular armies, numbering
80,000 men, secured against attack by the hostages so perfidiously
drawn from the Carthaginians, crossed from Sicily into Africa,
and disembarked at Utica, only ten miles from Carthage.

The Carthaginians were now commanded to give up all their
arms ; still hoping to win their enemy to clemency, they complied
with this demand also. Then the consuls made known the final
decree of the Roman Senate, — " That Carthage must be destroyed,
but that the inhabitants might build a new city, provided it were
located ten miles from the coast."

When this resolution of the Senate was announced to the Car-
thaginians, and they realized the baseness and perfidy of their
enemy, a cry of indignation and despair burst from the be-
trayed city.

The Carthaginians prepare to defend their City. — It was re-
solved to resist to the bitter end the execution of the cruel decree.
The gates of the city were closed. Men, women, and children
set to work and labored day and night manufacturing arms. The
entire city was converted into one great workshop. The utensils
of the home and the sacred vessels of the temples, statues, and
vases were melted down for weapons. Material was torn from
the buildings of the city for the construction of military engines.
The women cut off their hair and braided it into strings for the

THE DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE. 281

catapults. By such labor, and through such means, the city was
soon put in a state to withstand a siege.

When the Romans advanced to take possession of the place,
they were astonished to find the people they had just treacher-
ously disarmed, with weapons in their hands, manning the walls of
their capital, and ready to bid them defiance.

The Destruction of Carthage (146 b.c). — It is impossible for
us here to give the circumstances of the siege of Carthage. For
four years the city held out against the Roman army. At length
the consul Scipio ^milianus succeeded in taking it by storm.
When resistance ceased, only 50,000 men, women, and children,
out of a population of 700,000, remained to be made prisoners.
The city was fired, and for seventeen days the space within the
walls was a sea of flames. Every trace of building which the fire
could not destroy was levelled, a plough was driven over the site,
and a dreadful curse invoked upon any one who should dare
attempt to rebuild the city.

Such was the hard fate of Carthage. It is said that Scipio, as
he gazed upon the smouldering ruins, seemed to read in them the
fate of Rome, and, bursting into tears, sadly repeated the lines of
Homer : —

" The day shall come in which our sacred Troy,
And Priam, and the people over whom
Spear-bearing Priam rules, shall perish all."

The Carthaginian territory in Africa was made into a Roman
province, with Utica as the leading city ; and Roman civilization
was spread rapidly, by means of traders and settlers, throughout
the regions that lie between the ranges of the Atlas and the sea.

War in Spain.

Siege of Xumantia. — It is fitting that the same chapter which
narrates the destruction of Corinth in Greece, and the blotting-
out of Carthage in Africa, should tell the story of the destruction
of Numantia in Spain.

2S2 THE THIRD PUNIC WAR.

The expulsion of the Carthaginians from the Spanish peninsula
really gave Rome the control of only a small part of that country.
The warhke native tribes — the Celtiberians and Lusitanians —
of the North and the West were ready stubbornly to dispute with
the new-comers the possession of the soil. The treachery of the
Roman generals inflamed the natives to a desperate revolt under
Viriathus, a Lusitanian chief, who has been compared in his char-
acter and deeds to Wallace of Scotland. Finally Scipio ^milianus,
the conqueror of Carthage, was given the chief command. He
began by reforming the army, which had become shamefully disso-
lute. The crowds of merchants were driven out of the camp ; the
wagons in which the effeminate soldiers were accustomed to ride
were sold, and once more the Roman legions marched, instead of
riding, to battle.

With the army in proper discipline for service, Scipio rein-
vested Numantia, which had already withstood nine years of siege.
The brave defenders numbered barely 8000 men, while the lines
of circumvallation that hedged them in were kept by 60,000 sol-
diers. Famine at last gave the place into the hands of Scipio,
after almost all the inhabitants had met death, either in defence
of the walls, or by deliberate suicide. The miserable remnant
which the ravages of battle, famine, pestilence, and despair had
left alive were sold into slavery, and the city was levelled to the
ground (133 b.c).

The capture of Numantia was considered quite as great an
achievement as the taking of Carthage. Scipio celebrated another
triumph at Rome, and to his surname Africanus added that of
Numantinus. Spain became a favorite resort of Roman mer-
chants, and many colonies were established in different parts of
the country. As a result of this great influx of Italians, the laws,
manners, customs, language, and religion of the conquerors were
introduced everywhere, and the peninsula became rapidly Roman-
ized.

Q/H^*^.

THE SERVILE WAR IN SICILY. 283

CHAPTER VI.

THE LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

(133-31 B.C.)

We have now traced the growth of the power of repubhcan
Rome, as through two centuries and more of conquest she has
extended her authority, first throughout Italy, and then over
almost all the countries that border upon the Mediterranean.
It must be our less pleasant task now to follow the declining for-
tunes of the repubUc through the last century of its existence.
We shall here learn that wars waged for spoils and dominion ar^e
in the end more ruinous, if possible, to the conqueror than to the
conquered.

The Servile War in Sicily (134-132 b.c). — With the open-
ing of this period we find a terrible struggle going on in Sicily
between masters and slaves — or what is known as "The First
Servile War." The condition of affairs in that island was the
legitimate result of the Roman system of slavery. The captives
taken in war were usually sold into servitude. The great number
of prisoners furnished by the numerous conquests of the Romans
caused slaves to become a drug in the slave-markets of the Roman
world. They were so cheap that masters found it more profitable
to wear their slaves out by a few years of unmercifully hard labor,
and then to buy others, than to preserve their lives for a longer
period* by more humane treatment. In case of sickness, they
were left to die without attention, as the expense of nursing ex-
ceeded the cost of new purchases. Some Sicilian estates were
worked by as many as 20,000 slaves. That each owner might
know his own, the poor creatures were branded like cattle. What
makes all this the more revolting is the fact that many of these
slaves were in every way the peers of their owners, and often were

284 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC,

their superiors. The fortunes of war alone had made one servant
and the other master.

A considerable portion of the estates in Sicily were simply
grazing farms, their proprietors finding the raising of wool for
the clothing of the Roman legions more profitable than the cul-
tivation of grain. The slaves that tended the flocks on these
farms received from their masters neither pay, food, nor clothing.
They were expected to supply their needs from the herds they
tended, and by robbing travellers on the highways and plundering
the dwellings of the peasants. They were well armed, and were
always accompanied by fierce dogs. The magistrates dared not
punish them for their misdeeds, through fear of their masters, who
were all-powerful at Rome.

The wretched condition of these slaves and the cruelty of their
masters at last drove them to revolt. The insurrection spread
throughout the island, until 200,000 slaves were in arms, and in
possession of many of the strongholds of the country. They de-
feated four Roman armies sent against them, and for three years
defied the power of Rome. Finally, however, in the year 132 B.C.,
the revolt was crushed, and peace was restored to the distracted
island.^

The Public Lands. — In Italy itself affairs were in a scarcely
less wretched condition than In Sicily. When the different states
of the peninsula were subjugated, large portions of the conquered
territory had become public \a.nA\ager publicus) ; for upon the
subjugation of a state Rome never left to the conquered people
more than two-thirds of their lands, and often not so much as
this. The land appropriated was disposed of at public sale, leased
at low rentals, allotted to discharged soldiers, or allowed to lie
unused.^

1 In the year 102 B.C. another insurrection of the slaves broke out in the
island, which it required three years to quell. This last revolt is known as
"The Second Servile War."

2 These land matters may be made plain by a reference to the public lands
of the United States. The troubles in Ireland between the land-owners and

THE PUBLIC LANDS. 285

Now, it had happened that, in various ways, the greater part of
the public lands had fallen into the hands of the wealthy. They
alone had the capital necessary to stock and work them to advan-
tage ; hence the possessions of the small proprietors were gradu-
ally absorbed by the large landholders. These great proprietors,
also, disregarding a law which forbade any person to hold more
than five hundred jugera of land, held many times that amount.
Almost all the lands of Italy, about the beginning of the first cen-
tury B.C., are said to have been held by not more than 2000
persons ; for the large proprietors, besides the lands they had
secured by purchase from the government, or had wrested from
the smaller farmers, claimed enormous tracts to which they had
only a squatter's title. So long had they been left in undisturbed
possession of these government lands that they had come to look
upon them as absolutely their own. In many cases, feeling secure
through great lapse of time, — the lands having been handed down
through many generations, — the owners had expended large sums
in their improvement, and now resisted as very unjust every effort
to dispossess them of their hereditary estates. Money-lenders,
too, had, in many instances, made loans upon these lands, and
they naturally sided with the owners in their opposition to all
efforts to disturb the titles.

These wealthy "possessors" employed slave rather than free
labor, as they found it more profitable ; and so the poorer
Romans, left without employment, crowded into the cities, espe-
cially congregating at Rome, where they lived in vicious indo-
lence. The proprietors also found it for their interest to raise stock
rather than to cultivate the soil. All Italy became a great sheep-
pasture.

Thus, largely through the workings of the public land system,
the Roman people had become divided into two great classes, '
which are variously designated as the Rich and the Poor, the Pos-

their tenants will also serve to illustrate the agrarian disturbances in ancient
Rome

286 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

sessors and the Non- Possessors, the Optimates (the " Best ") and
the Populares (the "People"). We hear nothing more of patri-
cians and plebeians. As one expresses it, " Rome had become a
commonwealth of millionnaires and beggars."

For many years before and after the period at which we have
now arrived, a bitter struggle was carried on between these two
classes; just such a contest as we have seen waged between the
nobility and the commonalty in the earlier history of Rome. The
most instructive portion of the story of the Roman republic is
found in the records of this later struggle. The misery of the
great masses naturally led to constant agitation at the capital.
Popular leaders introduced bill after bill into the Senate, and
brought measure after measure before the assemblies of the
people, all aiming at the redistribution of the public lands and
the correction of existing abuses.

The Reforms of the Gracchi. — The most noted champions of
the cause of the poorer classes against the rich and powerful were
Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. These reformers are reckoned
among the most popular orators that Rome ever produced. They
eloquently voiced the wrongs of the people. Said Tiberius, *' You
are called ' lords of the earth ' without possessing a single clod to
call your own." The people made him tribune ; and in that
position he secured the passage of a law for the redistribution of
the public lands, which gave some relief. It took away from
Possessors without sons all the land they held over five hundred
jugera; Possessors with one son might hold seven hundred and
fifty jugera, and those with two sons one thousand.

At the end of his term of office, Tiberius stood a second time
for the tribunate. The nobles combined to defeat him. Fore-
seeing that he would not be re-elected, Tiberius resolved to use
force upon the day of voting. His partisans were overpowered,
and he and three hundred of his followers were killed in the
Forum, and their bodies thrown into the Tiber (133 B.C.). This
was the first time that the Roman Forum had witnessed such a
scene of violence and crime.

THE REFORMS OF THE GRACCHI. 287

Gaius Gracchus, the younger brother of Tiberius, now assumed
the position made vacant by the death of Tiberius. It is related
that Gaius had a dream in which the spirit of his brother seemed
to address him thus : "Gaius, why do you hnger? There is no
escape : one Hfe for both of us, and one death in defence of the
people, is our fate." The dream came true. Gaius was chosen
tribune in 123 B.C. He secured the passage of grain-laws which
provided that grain should be sold to the poor from public grana-
ries at half its value or less. This was a very unwise and perni-
cious measure. It was not long before grain was distributed free
to all applicants ; and a considerable portion of the population of
the capital were living in vicious indolence and feeding at the
public crib.

Gaius proposed other measures in the interest of the people,
which were bitteriy opposed by the Optimates ; and the two orders
at last came into collision. Gaius sought death by a friendly
sword (121 B.C.), and 3000 of his adherents were massacred.
The consul offered for the head of Gaius its weight in gold.
" This is the first instance in Roman history of head-money being
offered and paid, but it was not the last " (Long).

The people ever regarded the Gracchi as martyrs to their cause,
and their memory was preserved by statues in the public square.
To Cornelia, their mother, a monument was erected, bearing the
simple inscription, " The Mother of the Gracchi."

The War with Jugurtha (111-106 b.c). — After the death
of the Gracchi there seemed no one left to resist the heartless
oppressions and to denounce the scandalous extravagances of the
aristocratic party. Many of the laws of the Gracchi respecting
the public lands were annulled. Italy fell again into the hands of
a few over-rich land-owners. The provinces were plundered by
the Roman governors, who squandered their ill-gotten wealth at
the capital. The votes of senators and the decisions of judges,
the offices at Rome and the places in the provinces — everything
pertaining to the government had its price, and was bought and
sold like merchandise. Affairs in Africa at this time illustrate how

288 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

Roman virtue and integrity had declined since Fabricius indig-
nantly refused the gold of Pyrrhus.

Jugurtha, king of Numidia, had seized all that country, having
put to death the rightful rulers of different provinces of the same,
who had been confirmed in their possessions by the Romans
at the close of the Punic wars. Commissioners sent from Rome
to look into the matter were bribed by Jugurtha. Finally, the
Numidian robber, in carrying out some of his high-handed meas-
ures, put to death some Italian merchants. War was immediately
declared by the Roman Senate, and the consul Bestia was sent
into Africa with an army, to punish the insolent usurper. Bestia
sold himself to Jugurtha, and, instead of chastising him, confirmed
him in his stolen possessions. We should naturally suppose that
the Senate would have administered some wholesome correction
to the mercenary consul upon his return. But the wily general,
anticipating this, had taken with him the president of that body,
and had divided with him the spoils.

The indignation of the people, who had good reason to suspect
the real state of affairs, was great. They demanded that Jugurtha,
with the promise of immunity to himself, should be invited to
Rome, and encouraged to disclose the whole transaction, in order
that those who had betrayed the state for money might be pun-
ished. Jugurtha came ; but the gold of the consul and president
bribed one of the tribunes to prohibit the king from giving his
testimony.

Now it so happened that there was in Rome at this time a rival
claimant of the Numidian throne, who at this very moment was
urging his claims before the Senate. Jugurtha caused this rival to
be assassinated. As he himself was under a safe-conduct, the
Senate could do nothing to punish the audacious deed and to
resent the insult to the state, save by ordering the king to depart
from the city at once. As he passed the gates, it is said that he
looked scornfully back upon the capital, and exclaimed, "O venal
city ! thou wouldst sell thyself if thou couldst find a purchaser ! "

Upon the renewal of the war another Roman army was sent into

INVASION OF THE CIMBRI AND TEU TONES. 289

Africa, but was defeated and forced beneath the yoke. In the
year io6 B.C. the war was brought to a close by Gaius Marius, a
man who had risen to the consulship from the lowest ranks of the
people. Under him fought a young nobleman named Sulla, of
whom we shall hear much hereafter. Marius celebrated a grand
triumph at Rome. Jugurtha, after having graced the triumphal
procession, in which he walked with his hands bound with chains,
was thrown into the Mamertine dungeon beneath the Capitoline
hill, where he died of starvation.

Invasion of the Cimbri and Teutones. — The war was not
yet ended in Africa before terrible tidings came to Rome from
the north. Two mighty nations of " horrible barbarians," 300,000
strong in fighting-men, coming whence no one could tell, had
invaded and were now desolating the Roman provinces of
Gaul, and might any moment cross the Alps and pour down into
Italy.

The mysterious invaders proved to be two Germanic tribes,
the Teutones and Cimbri, the vanguard of that great German
migration which was destined to change the face and history of
Europe. These intruders were seeking new homes, and were
driven on, it would almost seem, by a blind and instinctive im-
pulse. They carried with them, in rude wagons, all their property,
their wives, and their children. The Celtic tribes of Gaul were
no match for the new-comers, and fled before them as they ad-
vanced. Several Roman armies beyond the Alps were cut to
pieces. In one battle more than 100,000 Romans are said to have
been slaughtered. The terror at Rome was only equalled by that
occasioned by the invasion of the Gauls two centuries before.
The Gauls were terrible enough ; but now the conquerors of the
Gauls were coming.

Marius, the conqueror of Jugurtha, was looked to by all as
the only man who could save the state in this crisis. He was
re-elected to the consulship, and intrusted with the command
of the armies. Accompanied by Sulla as one of his most skil-
ful lieutenants, Marius hastened into Northern Italy. The bar-

290 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

banans had divided into two bands. The Cimbri were to cross
the Eastern Alps, and join in the valley of the Po the Teutones,
who were to force the defiles of the Western, or Maritime Alps.
Marius determined to prevent the union of the barbarians, and to
crush each band separately.

Anticipating the march of the Teutones, he hurried over the
Alps into Gaul, and sat down in a fortified camp to watch their
movements. Unable to storm the Roman position, the bar-
barians resolved to leave their enemy in the rear and push on
into Italy. For six days and nights the endless train of men
and wagons rolled past the camp of Marius. The barbarians
jeered at the Roman soldiers, and asked them if they had any
messages they wished to send to their wives ; if so, they would
bear them, as they would be in Rome shortly. Marius allowed
them to pass by, and then, breaking camp, followed closely after.
Falling upon them at a favorable moment, he almost annihi-
lated the entire host.^ Two hundred thousand barbarians are
said to have been slain. Marius heaped together and burned
the spoils of the battle-field. While engaged in this work,
the news was brought to him of his re-election as consul for
the fifth time. This was illegal ; but the people felt that Marius
must be kept in the field.

Marius now recrossed the Alps, and, after visiting Rome,
hastened to meet the Cimbri, who were entering the north-
eastern corner of Italy. He was not a day too soon. Already
the barbarians had defeated the Roman army under the pa-
trician Catulus, and were ravaging the rich plains of the Po.
The Cimbri, imconscious of the fate of the Teutones, now sent
an embassy to Marius, to demand that they and their kinsmen
should be given lands in Italy. Marius sent back in reply,
"The Teutones have got all the land they need on the other
side of the Alps." The devoted Cimbri were soon to have all
they needed on this side.

1 In the battle of Aquae Sexti?e, fought 102 B.G

THE SOCIAL, OR MARSIC WAR. 291

A terrible battle almost immediately followed at Vercellse
(loi B.C.). The barbarians were drawn up in an enormous
hollow square, the men forming the outer ranks being fastened
together with ropes, to prevent the lines being broken. This
proved their ruin. More than 100,000 were killed, and 60,000
taken prisoners to be sold as slaves in the Roman markets.
Marius was hailed as the " Savior of his Country."

The fate of these two nations that were wandering over the
face of the earth in search of homes is one of the most pathetic
tales in all history. The almost innumerable host of wanderers,
men, women, and children, now "rested beneath the sod, or
toiled under the yoke of slavery : the forlorn hope of the German
migration had performed its duty ; the homeless people of the
Cimbri and their comrades were no more" (Mommsen). Their
kinsmen yet behind the Danube and the Rhine were destined to
exact a terrible revenge for their slaughter.

The Social, or Marsic War (91-89 b.c). — Scarcely was the
danger of the barbarian invasion past, before Rome was threatened
by another and greater evil arising within her own borders. At
this time all the free inhabitants of Italy were embraced in three
classes, — Roman citizens, Latins, and Italian allies. The Roman
citizens included the inhabitants of the capital and of the various
Roman colonies planted in different parts of the peninsula,^ besides
the people of a number of towns called municipia; the Latins
were the inhabitants of the Latin colonies;^ the Italian allies
{socii) included the various subjugated races of Italy .^

The Social, or Marsic War (as it is often called on account of
the prominent part taken in the insurrection by the warlike Mar-
sians) was a struggle that arose from the demands of the Italian
allies for the privileges of Roman citizenship, from which they
were wholly excluded. As the authority of Rome had been grad-
ually extended over the various cities and states of Italy, only

^ See p. 247, note.

* They enjoyed local self-government, but were bound by treaty to furnish
contingents to the Roman army in times of war.

292 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

a few favored individuals and communities had been admitted to
a share in the rights and immunities of the
citizens of the capital. Indeed, the world
had not yet come to regard the conquered
as having any rights whatever. But these
Italians were the same in race, language,
and religion as their conquerors : and it was

COIN OF THE ITALIAN , . ° , , , i , i j i i j -r.

CONFEDERACY. their valor and blood that had helped Rome

(The Italian Bull goringthe to sccure the dominiou of the Mediterra-
Roman Wolf.) ^^^^ ^^^j^^ y^^. jnyidious and hatcful dis-

tinctions separated them from the citizens of the capital. A
Roman soldier could not be scourged ; but an alien might be
whipped to death, and often was, without comment being excited
or redress being possible. Naturally the Italians complained
bitterly of having to fight for the maintenance of an empire in
the management of which they had no voice, and under the laws
of which they found no protection.

The socii now demanded the Roman franchise and the immu-
nities and privileges of citizens. The demand was stubbornly
resisted by both the aristocratical and the popular party at Rome.
Some, however, recognized the justice of these claims of the
Italians. Drusus championed their cause, but was murdered by
an infuriated mob. The Italians now flew to arms. They deter-
mined upon the establishment of a rival state. A town called
Corfinium, among the Apennines, was chosen as the capital of
the new republic, and its name changed to Italica. The govern-
ment of the new state was modelled after that at Rome. Two
consuls were placed at the head of the republic, and a senate
of five hundred members was formed. Thus, in a single day,
almost all Italy south of the Rubicon was lost to Rome. The
Etrurians, the Umbrians, the Campanians, the Latins, and some
of the Greek cities were the only states that remained faithful.

The greatness of the danger aroused all the old Roman courage
and patriotism. Aristocrats and democrats hushed their quarrels ;
Sulla and Marius forgot rising animosities, and fought bravely side

THE CIVIL WAR OF MARIUS AND SULLA. 293

by side for the endangered life of the republic. An army of
100,000 men was raised to face a force equal in number and disci-
pline that had been gathered by the new confederacy. The war
lasted three years. Finally Rome prudently extended the right of
the franchise to the Latins, Etruscans, and Umbrians, who had so
far remained true to her, but now began to show signs of wavering
in their loyalty. Shortly afterwards she offered the same to all
Italians who should lay down their arms within sixty days. This
tardy concession to the just demands of the Italians virtually ended
the war. It had been extremely disastrous to the republic. Hun-
dreds of thousands of lives had been lost, many towns had been
depopulated, and vast tracts of the country made desolate by those
ravages that never fail to characterize civil contentions.

In after years, under the empire, the rights of Roman citizen-
ship, which the Italians had now so hardly won, were extended to
all the free inhabitants of the various provinces beyond the con-
fines of Italy (see p. 353).

The Civil War of Marins and Sulla. — The Social War was not
yet ended when a formidable enemy appeared in the East. Mith-
radates the Great, king of Pontus, taking advantage of the distracted
condition of the republic, had encroached upon the Roman prov-
inces in Asia Minor, and had caused a general massacre of the
Italian traders and residents in that country. The number of
victims of this wholesale slaughter has been variously estimated
at from 80,000 to 150,000. The Roman Senate instantly declared
war. But the Marsic struggle had drained the treasury. The
money needed for equipping an army could be raised only by the
sale of the vacant public ground about the Capitol building.

A contest straightway arose between Marius and Sulla for the
command of the forces. The former was now an old man of
seventy years, while the latter was but forty-nine. Marius could
not endure the thought of being pushed aside by his former
lieutenant. The veteran general joined with the young men in
the games and exercises of the gymnasium, to show that his frame
was still animated by the strength and agility of youth. The

294 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

Senate, however, conferred the command upon Sulla. Marius
was furious at the success of his rival, and by fraud and intimida-
tion succeeded in getting the command taken away from Sulla
and given to himself. Two tribunes were sent to demand of Sulla,
who was still in Italy, the transfer of the command of the legions
to Marius ; but the messengers were killed by the soldiers, who
were devotedly attached to their commander. Sulla now saw
that the sword must settle the dispute. He marched at the head
of his legions upon Rome, entered the gates, and " for the first
time in the annals of the city a Roman army encamped within the
walls." The party of Marius was defeated, and he and ten of his
companions were proscribed. Marius escaped and fled to Africa ;
Sulla embarked with the legions to meet Mithradates in the East
(88 B.C.).

The Wanderings of Marius. — Leaving Sulla to carry on the
Mithradatic War, we must first follow the fortunes of the exiled

^■"^"^ ■ Marius. The ship in which he fled from

Italy was driven ashore at Circeii. Here
Marius and the companions of his flight
wandered about, sustained by the hope
inspired by the good omen of the seven
eaglets. As the story runs, Marius, when
a boy, had captured an eagle's nest with
seven young, and the augurs had said that
this signified that he should be seven times
consul. He had already held the office
six times, and he firmly believed that the
prophecy would be fulfilled as to the
seventh.

The pursuers of Marius at last found him hiding in a marsh,
buried to his neck in mud and water. He was dragged before
the authorities of the town of Minturnae. The magistrates, in
obedience to the commands that had been sent everywhere,
determined to put him to death. A Cimbrian slave was sent to
despatch him. The cell where Marius lay was dark, and the eyes

RETURN OF MARIUS TO ITALY. 295

of the old soldier "seemed to flash fire." As the slave advanced,
Marius shouted, "Man, do you dare kill Gaius Marius?" The
frightened slave dropped his sword, and fled from the chamber,
half dead with fear.

A better feeling now took possession of the men of Mintumae,
and they resolved that the blood of the " Savior of Italy " should
not be upon their hands. They put him aboard a vessel, which
bore him and his friends to an island just off* the coast of Africa.
When he attempted to set foot upon the mainland near Carthage,
Sextus, the Roman governor of the province, sent a messenger to
forbid him to land. The legend says that the old general, almost
choking with indignation, only answered, " Go, tell your master
that you have seen Marius a fugitive sitting amidst the ruins of
Carthage."

The Return of Marius to Italy. — The exile at length found a
temporary refuge on the island of Cercina, off the coast of Tunis.
Here news was brought to him that his party, under the lead of
Cinna, was in successful revolt against the Optimates, and that he
was needed. He immediately set sail for Italy, and, landing in
Etruria, joined Cinna. Together they hoped to crush and exter-
minate the opposing faction. Rome was cut off from her food-
supplies and starved into submission.

Marius now took a terrible revenge upon his enemies. The
consul Octavius was assassinated, and his head set up in front of
the Rostrum. Never before had such a thing been seen at Rome
— a consul's head exposed to the public gaze. The senators,
equestrians, and leaders of the Optimate party fled from the capi-
tal. For five days and nights a merciless slaughter was kept up.
The life of every man in the capital was in the hands of the
revengeful Marius. If he refused to return the greeting of any
citizen, that sealed his fate : he was instantly despatched by the
soldiers who awaited the dictator's nod. The bodies of the vic-
tims lay unburied in the streets. Sulla's house was torn down,
and he himself declared a public enemy. During the tumult the
slaves had armed themselves, and, imitating the example set

296 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC,

before them, were rioting in murder and pillage. Marius, finding
it impossible to restrain their maddened fury, turned his soldiers
loose upon them, and they were massacred to a man.

As a fitting sequel to all this violence, Marius and Cinna were,
in an entirely illegal way, declared consuls. The prophecy of the
eaglets was fulfilled ; Marius was consul for the seventh time. But
rumors were now spread that Sulla, having overthrown Mithra-
dates, was about to set out on his return with his victorious legions.
He would surely exact speedy and terrible vengeance. Marius,
now old and enfeebled by the hardships of many campaigns,
seemed to shrink from facing again his hated rival. He plunged
into dissipation to drown his remorse and gloomy forebodings,
and died in his seventy-first year (86 B.C.), after having held his
seventh consulship only thirteen days.

Sulla and the First Mithradatic War (88-84 b.c.) . — When
Sulla l6ft Italy with his legions for the East he knew very well that
his enemies would have their own way in Italy during his absence ;
but he also knew that, if successful in his campaign against Mith-
radates, he could easily regain Italy, and wrest the government
from the hands of the Marian party.

We can here take space to give simply the results of Sulla's
campaigns in the East. After driving the army of Mithradates
out of Greece, Sulla crossed the Hellespont, and forced the king
to sue for peace. He gave up his conquered territory, surren-
dered his war-ships, and paid a large indemnity to cover the
expenses of the war (84 B.C.).

With the Mithradatic War ended, Sulla wrote to the Senate,
saying that he was now coming to take vengeance upon the
Marian party, — his own and the republic's foes.

The terror and consternation produced at Rome by this letter
were increased by the accidental burning of the Capitol. The
Sibyllme books, which held the secrets of the fate of Rome, were
consumed. This accident awakened the most gloomy appre-
hensions. Such an event, it was believed, could only foreshadow
the most direful calamities to the state.

THE PROSCRIPTIONS OF SULLA. 297

The Proscriptions of Sulla. — The returning army from the
East landed in Italy. With his veteran legions at his back, Sulla
marched into Rome with all the powers of a dictator. The leaders
of the Marian party were proscribed, rewards were offered for their
heads, and their property was confiscated. Sulla was implored to
make out a list of those he designed to put to death, that those
he intended to spare might be relieved of the terrible suspense in
which all were now held. He made out a list of eighty, which
was attached to the Rostrum. The people murmured at the
length of the roll. In a few days it was extended to over three
hundred, and grew rapidly, until it included the names of thou-
sands of the best citizens of Italy. Hundreds were murdered, not
for any offence, but because some favorites of Sulla coveted their
estates. A wealthy noble coming into the Forum and reading his
own name in the list of the proscribed, exclaimed, "Alas! my
villa has proved my ruin." The infamous Catiline, by having the
name of a brother placed upon the fatal roll, secured his property.
Julius Caesar, at this time a mere boy of eighteen, was proscribed
on account of his relationship to Marius ; but, upon the interces-
sion of friends, Sulla spared him ; as he did so, however, he said
wamingly, and, as the event proved, prophetically, " There is in
that boy many a Marius."

Senators, knights, and wealthy land-owners fell by hundreds
and by thousands ; but the poor Italians who had sided with the
Marian party were simply slaughtered by tens of thousands. Nor
did the provinces escape. In Sicily, Spain, and Africa the enemies
of the dictator were hunted and exterminated like noxious animals.
It is estimated that the civil war of Marius and Sulla cost the
republic over 150,000 lives.

When Sulla had sated his revenge, he celebrated a splendid
triumph at Rome ; the Senate enacted a law declaring all that
he had done legal and right, caused to be erected in the Forum a
gilded equestrian statue of the dictator, which bore the legend,
« To Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the Commander Beloved by Fortune,"
and made him dictator for life. Sulla used his position and influ-

298 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

ence in recasting the constitution in the interest of the aristocratic
party. After enjoying the unUmited power of an Asiatic despot
for three years, he suddenly resigned the dictatorship, and retired
to his villa at Puteoli, where he gave himself up to the grossest
dissipations. He died the year following his abdication (78 B.C.).
The soldiers who had fought under the old general crowded
to his funeral from all parts of Italy. The body was burned upon
a huge funeral pyre raised in the Campus Martins. The monu-
ment erected to his memory bore this inscription, which he him-
self had composed : " None of my friends ever did me a kindness,
and none of my enemies ever did me a wrong, without being
folly requited."

POMPEY THE GREAT IN SPAIN. 299

CHAPTER VII.

THE LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC (^concluded).

(133-31 B.C.)

Pompey the Great in Spain. — The fires of the Civil War,
though quenched in Italy, were still smouldering in Spain. Serta-
rius, an adherent of Marius, had there stirred up the martial tribes
of Lusitania, and incited a general revolt against the power of
the aristocratic government at Rome. Gnaeus Pompey, a rising
young leader of the oligarchy, upon whom the title of " Great " had
already been conferred as a reward for crushing the Manan party
in Sicily and Africa, was sent into Spain to perform a similar ser-
vice there.

For several years the war was carried on with varying fortunes.
At times the power of Rome in the peninsula seemed on the verge
of utter extinction. Finally the brave Sertorius was assassinated
(72 B.C.), and then the whole of Spain was quickly regained.
Pompey boasted of having forced the gates of more than eight
hundred cities in Spain and Southern Gaul. Throughout all the
conquered regions he established military colonies, and reorganized
the local governments, putting in power those who would be not
only friends and allies of the Roman state, but also his own per-
sonal adherents. How he used these men as instruments of his
ambition, we shall learn a little later.

Spartacns : War of the Gladiators (73-71 b.c). — While Pom-
pey was subduing the Marian faction in Spain, a new danger broke
out in the midst of Italy. Gladiatorial combats had become at this
time the favorite sport of the amphitheatre. At Capua was a sort
of training-school, from which skilled fighters were hired out for
public or private entertainments. In this seminary was a Thracian
slave, known by the name of Spartacus, who incited his compan-

300 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

ions to revolt. The insurgents fled to the crater of Vesuvius, and
made that their stronghold. There they were joined by gladiators
from other schools, and by slaves and discontented men from
every quarter. Some slight successes enabled them to arm them-
selves with the weapons of their enemies. Their number at length
increased to 150,000 men. For three years they defied the
power of Rome, and even gained control of the larger part of
Southern Italy. Four Roman armies sent against them were cut
to pieces.

But Spartacus, who was a man of real ability and discernment,
foresaw that a protracted contest with Rome must inevitably issue
in the triumph of the government. He therefore counselled his
followers to fight their way over the Alps, and then to disperse to
their various homes in Gaul, Spain, and Thrace. But elated with
the successes already achieved, they imagmed that they could
capture Rome, and have all Italy for a spoil. Their camp was
already filled with plunder, which the insurgents sold to specula-
tors. They took in exchange for these spoils only brass and iron,
which their forges quickly converted into weapons.

At length M. Crassus succeeded in crowding the insurgents
down into Rhegium, where Hannibal had stood so long at bay.
Spartacus now resolved to pass over into Sicily, and stir up the
embers of the old Servile War upon that island. He bargained
with the pirates that infested the neighboring seas to convey his
forces across the straits ; but as soon as they had received the
stipulated price they treacherously sailed away, and left Spartacus
and his followers to their fate. Crassus threw up a wall across
the isthmus, to prevent the escape of the insurgents ; but Spar-
tacus broke through the Roman line by night, and hastened
northward with his army. Following in hot pursuit, Crassus over-
took the fugitives at the Silarus, and there subjected them to a
decisive defeat. Spartacus himself was slain ; but 5000 of the
insurgents escaped, and fled towards the Alps. This flying band
was met and annihilated by Pompey, who was returning from
Spain.

THE ABUSES OF VERRES. 301

The slaves that had taken part in the revolt were hunted through
the mountains and forests, and exterminated like dangerous beasts.
The Appian Way was lined with six thousand crosses, bearing aloft
as many bodies, — a terrible warning of the fate awaiting slaves
that should dare to strike for freedom.

The Abuses of Verres. — Terrible as was the state of society in
Italy, still worse was the condition of affairs outside the peninsula.
At first the mle of the Roman governors in the provinces, though
severe, was honest and prudent. But during the period of profli-
gacy and corruption upon which we have now entered, the admin-
istration of these foreign possessions was shamefully dishonest and
incredibly cruel and rapacious. The prosecution of Verres, the
propraetor of Sicily, exposed the scandalous rule of the oligarchy,
into whose hands the government had fallen. For three years
Verres plundered and ravaged that island with impunity. He sold
all the offices and all his decisions as judge. He demanded of
the farmers the greater part of their crops, which he sold, to swell
his already enormous fortune. Agriculture was thus ruined, and
the farms were abandoned. Verres had a taste for art, and when
on his tours through the island confiscated gems, vases, statues,
paintings, and other things that struck his fancy, whether in tem-
ples or private dwellings.

Verres could not be called to account while in office ; and it
was doubtful whether, after the end of his term, he could be con-
victed, so corrupt and venal had become the members of the
Senate, before whom all such offenders must be tried. Indeed,
Verres himself openly boasted that he intended two thirds of his
gains for his judges and lawyers, while the remaining one third
would satisfy himself.

At length, after Sicily had come to look as though it had been
ravaged by barbarian conquerors, the infamous robber was im-
peached. The prosecutor was Marcus Tullius Cicero, the brilliant
orator, who was at this time just rising into prominence at Rome.
The storm of indignation raised by the developments of the trial

■M)2 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

caused Verres to flee into exile to Massilia, whither he took with
him much of his ill-gotten wealth.

War with the Mediterranean Pirates (66 b.c). — The Roman
republic was now threatened by a new danger from the sea. The
Mediterranean was swarming with pirates. Roman conquests in
Africa, Spain, and especially in Greece and Asia Minor, had caused
thousands of adventurous spirits from those maritime countries to
flee to their ships, and seek a livelihood by preying upon the com-
merce of the seas. The cruelty and extortions of the Roman
governors had also driven large numbers to the same course of
life. These corsairs had banded themselves into a sort of govern-
ment, and held possession of numerous strongholds — four hun-
dred, it is said — in Cilicia, Crete, and other countries. With a
thousand swift ships they scoured the waters of the Mediterra-
nean, so that no merchantman could spread her sails in safety.
They formed a floating empire, which Michelet calls a " a wander-
ing Carthage, which no one knew where to seize, and which
floated from Spain to Asia."

These buccaneers, the Vikings of the South, made descents
upon the coast everywhere, plundered villas and temples, at-
tacked and captured cities, and sold the inhabitants as slaves in
the various slave markets of the Roman ,\yorld. They carried off
merchants and magistrates from the Appian Way itself, and held
them for ransom. At last the grain ships of Sicily and Africa
were intercepted, and Rome was threatened with the alternative
of starvation or the paying of an enormous ransom.

The Romans now bestirred themselves. Pompey was invested
with dictatorial power for three years over the Mediterranean and
all its coasts for fifty miles inland. An armament of 500 ships and
100,000 men was intrusted to his command. The great general
acted with his characteristic energy. Within forty days he had
swept the pirates from the Western Mediterranean, and in forty-
nine more hunted them from all the waters east of Italy, captured
their strongholds in Cilicia, and settled the 20,000 prisoners that
fell into his hands in various colonies in Asia Minor and Greece.

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THE THIRD MITHRADATIC WAR. 303

Pompey's vigorous and successful conduct of this campaign against
the pirates gained him great honor and reputation.

Pompey and the Third ^ Mithradatie War (74-64 b.c). — In
the very year that Pompey suppressed the pirates, he was called
upon to undertake a more difficult task. Mithradates the Great,
led on by his ambition, and encouraged by the discontent created
throughout the Eastern provinces by Roman rapacity and misrule,
was again in arms against Rome. He had stirred almost all Asia
Minor to revolt. The management of the war was at first in-
trusted to the consul Lucius Licinius Lucullus, but he soon lost
the confidence both of the people at home and of the soldiers in
the army; so the command was taken from him and conferred
upon Pompey, whose success in the war of the pirates had aroused
unbounded enthusiasm for him.

In a great battle in Lesser Armenia, Pompey almost annihilated
the army of Mithradates. The king fled from the field and, after
seeking in vain for a refuge in Asia Minor, sought an asylum
beyond the Caucasus Mountains, whose bleak barriers interposed
their friendly shield between him and
his pursuers. Desisting from the pursuit,
Pompey turned south and conquered Sy-
ria, Phoenicia, and Coele-Syria, which coun-
tries he erected into a Roman province.

Still pushing southward, the conqueror
entered Palestine, and after a short siege
captured Jerusalem (63 B.C.). It was at
this time that Pompey insisted, in spite of mithradates vi.
the protestations of the high priest, upon ^""^^^ ^'^**-^

entering the Holy of Holies of the Hebrew temple. Pushing aside
the curtain to the jealously guarded apartment, he was astonished
to find nothing but a dark and vacant chamber, without even a statue
of the god to whom the shrine was dedicated — nothing but a little
chest (the Ark of the Covenant) containing some sacred relics.

1 The so-called Second Mithradatie War (83-82 B.C.) was a short conflict be-
tween the Romans and Mithradates that arose just after the close of the First

304 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

While Pompey was thus engaged, Mithradates was straining
every energy to raise an army among the Scythian tribes with
which to carry out a most daring project. He proposed to cross
Europe and fall upon Italy from the north. A revolt on the part
of his son Pharnaces ruined all his plans and hopes; and the
disappointed monarch, to avoid falling into the hands of the
Romans, took his own hfe (63 B.C.). His death removed one of
the most formidable enemies that Rome had ever encountered.
Hamilcar, Hannibal, and Mithradates were the three great names
that the Romans always pronounced with respect and dread.

Pompey's Triumph. — After regulating the affairs of the different
states and provinces in the East, Pompey set out on his return to
Rome, where he enjoyed such a triumph as never before had been
seen since Rome had become a city. The spoils of all the East
were borne in the procession; 322 princes walked as captives
before the triumphal chariot of the conqueror ; legends upon the
banners proclaimed that he had conquered 21 kings, captured
1000 strongholds, 900 towns, and 800 ships, and subjugated more
than 1 2,000,000 people ; and that he had put into the treasury
more than ^25,000,000, besides doubling the regular revenues of
the state. He boasted that three times he had triumphed, and
each time for the conquest of a continent — first for Africa, then
for Europe, and now for Asia, which completed the conquest of
the 'vorld.

Thd Conspiracy of Catiline (64-62 b.c). — While the legions
were absent from Italy with Pompey in the East, a most daring
conspiracy against the government was formed at Rome. Catiline,
a ruined spendthrift, had gathered a large company of profligate
young nobles, weighed down with debts and desperate like himself,
and had deliberately planned to murder the consuls and the chief
men of the state, and to plunder and burn the capital. The offices
of the new government were to be divided among the conspira-
tors. They depended upon receiving aid from Africa and Spain,
and proposed to invite to their standard the gladiators in the
various schools of Italy, as well as slaves and criminals. The

C^SAR, CRASS US, AND POMPEY. 305

proscriptions of Sulla were to be renewed, and all debts were to
be cancelled.

Fortunately, all the plans of the conspirators were revealed to
the consul Cicero, the great orator. The Senate immediately
clothed the consuls with dictatorial power with the usual formula,
that they " should take care that the republic received no harm."
The gladiators were secured ; the city walls were manned ; and at
every point the capital and state were armed against the " invisible
foe." Then in the Senate-chamber, with Catiline himself present,
Cicero exposed the whole conspiracy in a famous philippic, known
as " The First Oration against Catiline." The senators shrank
from the conspirator, and left the seats about him empty. After
a feeble effort to reply to Cicero, overwhelmed by a sense of his
guilt, and the cries of " traitor " and " parricide " from the senators,
Catiline fled from the chamber, and hurried out of the city to the
camp of his followers in Etruria. In a desperate battle fought
near Pistoria (62 B.C.), he was slain with many of his followers.
His head was borne as a trophy to Rome. Cicero was hailed as
the " Savior of his Country."

Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey. — Although the conspiracy of
Catiline had failed, it was very easy to foresee that the downfall
of the Roman republic was near at hand. Indeed, from this time
on, only the name remains. The basis of the institutions of the
republic — the old Roman virtue, integrity, patriotism, and faith
in the gods — was gone, having been swept away by the tide of
luxury, selfishness, and immorality produced by the long series
of foreign conquests and robberies in which the Roman people
had been engaged. The days of liberty at Rome were over.
From this time forward the government was really in the hands
of ambitious and popular leaders, or of corrupt combinations and
" rings." Events gather about a few great names, and the annals
of the republic become biographical rather than historical.

There \v%re now in the state three men — Caesar, Crassus, and
Pompey — who were destined to shape affairs. Gains Julius Caesar
was bom in the year 100 B.C. Although descended from an old

306 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

patrician family, still his sympathies, and an early marriage to the
daughter of Cinna, one of the adherents of Marius, led him early
to identify himself with the Marian, or democratic party. In
every way Csesar courted public favor. He lavished enormous
sums upon public games and tables. His debts are said to have
amounted to 25,000,000 sesterces (^1,250,000). His popularity was
unbounded. A successful campaign in Spain had already made
known to himself, as well as to others, his genius as a commander.

Marcus Licinius Crassus belonged to the senatorial, or aristo-
cratic party. He owed his influence to his enormous wealth, being
one of the richest men in the Roman world. His property was
estimated at 7100 talents (about $8,875,000).^

With Gnseus Pompey and his achievements we are already
familiar. His influence throughout the Roman world was great ;
for, in setding and reorganizing the many countries he subdued, he
had always taken care to reconstruct them in his own interest, as
well as in that of the repubhc. The offices, as we have seen, were
filled w:th his friends and adherents (see p. 299). This patronage
had secured for him incalculable authority in the provinces. His
veteran legionaries, too, were naturally devoted to the general who
had led them so often to victory.

A. n 'f jie greatest part of this fortune, if we may declare the truth, to his
extreme disgrace, was gleaned from war and from fires; for he made a traffic
of the pubUc calamities. When Sulla had taken Rome, and sold the estates of
those whom he had put to death, which he both reputed and called the spoils
of his enemies, he was desirous of involving all persons of consequence in his
crime, and he found in Crassus a man who refused no kind of gift or purchase.
Crassus observed also how liable the city was to fires, and how frequently houses
fell down; which misfortunes were owing to the weight of the buildings, and
their standing so close together. In consequence of this, he provided himself
with slaves who were carpenters and masons, and went on collecting them till
he had upwards of five hundred. Then he made it his business to buy houses
that were on fire, and others that joined upon them; and he commonly had
them at a low price by reason of the fire, and the distress the owners were in
about the event. [Then the slaves would set to work and extinguish the fire,
and Crassus at a small cost would repair the damage.] Hence in time he
became master of a great part of Rome." — Plutarch.

THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE. 307

The First Triumvirate (60 b.c). — What is known as the
First Triumvirate rested on the genius of Caesar, the wealth of
Crassus, and the achievements of Pompey, It was a coaHtion or
private arrangement entered into by these three men for the
purpose of securing to themselves the control of pubhc affairs.
Each pledged himself to work for the interests of the others.
Caesar was the manager of the " ring." He skilfully drew away
Pompey from the aristocratical party, and effected a reconciliation
between him and Crassus, for they had been at enmity. It was
agreed that Crassus and Pompey should aid Caesar in securing the
consulship. In return for this favor, Caesar was to secure for
Pompey a confirmation of his acts in the East, and allotments of
land for his veterans, concessions which thus far had been jealously
withheld by the senatorial party.

Everything fell out as the triumvirs had planned : Caesar got
the consulship, and Pompey received the lands for his soldiers.
The two ablest senatorial leaders, Cato and Cicero, whose incor-
ruptible integrity threatened the plans of the triumvirs, were got
out of the way. Cato was given an appointment which sent him
into honorable exile to the island of Cyprus ; while Cicero, on
the charge of having denied Roman citizens the right of trial in
the matter of the Catiline conspirators, was banished from the
capital, his mansion on the Palatine was razed to the ground, and
the remainder of his property confiscated.

Caesar's Conquests in Gaul and Britain (58-51 b.c). — At the
end of his consulship, Caesar had assigned him the administra-
tion of the provinces of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul. Already
he was revolving in his mind plans for seizing supreme power.
Beyond the Alps the Gallic and Germanic tribes were in restless
movement. He saw there a grand field for military exploits,
which should gain for him such glory and prestige as, in other
fields, had been won, and were now enjoyed, by Pompey. With
this achieved, and with a veteran army devoted to his interests, he
might hope easily to attain that position at the head of affairs
towards which his ambition was urging him.

308 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

In the spring of 58 b.c. alarming intelligence from beyond the
Alps caused Caesar to hasten from Rome into Transalpine Gaul.
Now began a series of eight brilliant campaigns directed against
the various tribes of Gaul, Germany, and Britain. In his admi-
rable " Commentaries " Caesar himself has left us a faithful and
graphic account of all the memorable marches, battles, and sieges
that filled the years between 58 and 51 b.c.

Caesar's first campaign after arriving in Gaul was directed against
the Helvetians. These people, finding themselves too much
crowded in their narrow territory, hemmed in as they were be-
tween the Alps and the Jura ranges, had resolved to seek broader
fields in the Gallic territories across the Rhone. Disregarding
the commands of Caesar, the entire nation, numbering with their
allies 368,000 souls, left their old homes, and began their west-
ward march. In a great battle Caesar completely defeated the
barbarians, and forced them back into their old home between the
mountains, now quite large enough for the survivors, as barely a
third of those that set out returned.

Caesar next defeated the Suevi, a German tribe that, under the
great chieftain Ariovistus, had crossed the Rhine, and were seek-
ing settlements in Gaul. These people he forced back over the
Rhine into their native forests. The two years following this cam-
paign were consumed in subjugating the different tribes in North-
ern and Western Gaul, and in composing the affairs of the country.
In the war with the Veneti was fought the first historic naval battle
upon the waters of the Atlantic.

The year 55 b.c. marked two great achievements. Early in the
spring of this year Caesar constructed a bridge across the Rhine,
and led his legions against the Germans in their native woods and
swamps. In the autumn of the same year he crossed, by means
of hastily constructed ships, the channel that separates the main-
land from Britain, and after maintaining a foothold upon that
island for two weeks wididrew his legions into Gaul for the winter.
The following season he made another invasion of Britain ; but,
after some encounters with the fierce barbarians, recrossed to the

RESULTS OF THE GALLIC WARS. 309

mainland, without having established any permanent garrisons in
the island. Almost one hundred years passed away before the
natives of Britain were again molested by the Romans (see p. 128).

In the year 5 2 B.C., while Caesar was absent in Italy, a general
revolt occurred among the Gallic tribes. It was a last desperate
struggle for the recovery of their lost independence. Vercingeto-
rix, chief of the Arverni, was the leader of the insurrection. For
a time it seemed as though the Romans would be driven from the
country. But Caesar's despatch and genius saved the province to
the republic. Vercingetorix and 80,000 of his warriors were shut
up in Alesia, and were finally starved into submission. All Gaul
was now quickly reconquered and pacified.

In his campaigns in Gaul, Caesar had subjugated 300 tribes,
captured 800 cities, and slain 1,000,000 barbarians — one third of
the entire population of the country. Another third he had taken
prisoners. Great enthusiasm was aroused at Rome by these victo-
ries. " Let the Alps sink," exclaimed Cicero : " the gods raised
them to shelter Italy from the barbarians ; they are now no longer
needed."

Results of the Gallic Wars. — One result of the Gallic wars of
Caesar was the Romanizing of Gaul. The country was opened to
Roman traders and settlers, who carried with them the language,
customs, and arts of Italy. Honors were conferred upon many
of the Gallic chieftains, privileges were bestowed upon cities, and
the franchise even granted to prominent and influential natives.
As another result of the conquest of the country, Mommsen gives
prominence to the checking of migratory movements of the Ger-
man tribes, which gave " the necessary interval for Italian civiliza-
tion to become established in Gaul, on the Danube, in Africa, and
in Spain."

Crassns in the East. — In the year 56 B.C., while Caesar was in
the midst of his Gallic wars, he found time to meet Pompey, Cras-
sus, and two hundred senators and magistrates who co-operated
with the triumvirs, at Lucca, in Etruria, where, in a sort of conven-
tion, arrangements were made for another term of five years. (A

310 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

nomination by this league or "ring" of politicians and generals was
equivalent to an election.) It was agreed that Caesar's command in
Gaul should be extended five years, and that Crassus and Pompey
should be made consuls. All these measures were carried into
effect, the elections at Rome being secured by intimidation, and
by the votes of soldiers of the GaUic legions, to whom Caesar had
granted furloughs for this purpose. The government of the two
Spains was given to Pompey, while that of Syria was assigned to
Crassus.

The latter hurried to the East, hoping to rival there the brilliant
conquests of Caesar in the West. At this time the great Parthian
empire occupied the immense reach of territory stretching from
the valley of the Euphrates to that of the Indus. Notwithstanding
that the Parthians were at peace with the Roman people, Crassus
led his army across the Euphrates, and invaded their territory,
intent upon a war of conquest and booty. In the midst of the
Mesopotamian desert he was treacherously deserted by his guides ;
and his army, suddenly attacked by the Parthian cavalry, was
almost annihilated. Crassus himself was slain, and his head, so
it is said, was filled by his captors with molten gold, that he might
be sated with the metal which he had so coveted during life.

In the death of Crassus, Caesar lost his stanchest friend, one
who had never failed him, and whose wealth had been freely used
for his advancement. When Caesar, before his consulship, had
received a command in Spain, and the immense sums he owed at
Rome were. embarrassing him and preventing his departure, Cras-
sus had come forward and generously paid more than a million
dollars of his friend's debts.

Eivalry between Caesar and Pompey. — After the death of
Crassus the world belonged to Caesar and Pompey. That the in-
satiable ambition of these two rivals should sooner or later bring
them into collision was inevitable. Their alliance in the triumvi-
rate was simply one of selfish convenience, not of friendship.
While Caesar was carrying on his brilliant campaigns in Gaul, Pom-
pey was at Rome watching jealously the growing reputation of his

RIVALRY BETWEEN CyESAR AND POMPEY. 311

great rival. He strove, by a princely liberality, to win the affec-
tions of the common people. On the Field of Mars he erected an
immense theatre with seats for 40,000 spectators. He gave mag-
nificent games and set public tables ; and when the interest of the
people in the sports of the Circus flagged, he entertained them
with gladiatorial combats. In a similar manner Caesar strength-
ened himself with the people for the struggle which he plainly fore-
saw. He sought in every way to ingratiate himself with the Gauls :
he increased the pay of his soldiers, conferred the privileges of
Roman citizenship upon the inhabitants of different cities, and
sent to Rome enormous sums of gold to be expended in the erec-
tion of temples, theatres, and other public structures, and in the
celebration of games and shows that should rival in magnificence
those given by Pompey.

The terrible condition of affairs at the capital favored the ambi-
tion of Pompey. So selfish and corrupt were the members of the
Senate, so dead to all virtue and to every sentiment of patriotism
were the people, that even such patriots as Cato and Cicero saw
no hope for the maintenance of the republic. The former favored
the appointment of Pompey as sole consul for one year, which was
about the same thing as making him dictator. " It is better," said
Cato, " to choose a master than to wait for the tyrant whom anar-
chy will impose upon us." The " tyrant " in his and everybody's
mind was Caesar.

Pompey now broke with Caesar, and attached himself again to
the old aristocratical party, which he had deserted for the alliance
and promises of the triumvirate. The death at this time of his
wife Julia, the daughter of Caesar, severed the bonds of relation-
ship at the same moment that those of ostensible friendship were
broken.

Caesar crosses the Rubicon (49 b.c). — Caesar now demanded
the consulship. He knew that his life would not be safe in Rome
from the jealousy and hatred of his enemies without the security
from impeachment and trial which that office would give. The
Senate, under the manipulation of these same enemies, issued a

312 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

decree that he should resign his office, and disband his GalUc
legions by a stated day. The crisis had now come. Caesar
ordered his legions to hasten from Gaul into Italy. Without wait-
ing for their arrival, at the head of a small body of veterans that
he had with him at Ravenna, he crossed the Rubicon, a little
stream that marked the boundary of his province. This was a
declaration of war. As he plunged into the river, he exclaimed,
" The die is cast ! "

The Civil War between Caesar and Pompey (49-48 b.c). —
The bold movement of Caesar produced great consternation at
Rome. Realizing the danger of delay, Csesar, without waiting for
the Gallic legions to join him, marched southward. One city after
another threw open its gates to him ; legion after legion went over
to his standard. Pompey and a great part of the senators
hastened from Rome to Brundisium, and thence with about
25,000 men fled across the Adriatic into Greece. Within sixty
days Caesar made himself undisputed master of all Italy.

Pompey and Caesar now controlled the Roman world. It was
large, but not large enough for both these ambitious men. As to
which was likely to become sole master it were difficult for one
watching events at that time to foresee. Caesar held Italy, lUyri-
cum, and Gaul, with the resources of his own genius and the
idolatrous attachment of his soldiers ; Pompey controlled Spain,
Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, Greece, and the provinces of Asia, with
the prestige of his great name and the enormous resources of
the East.

Caesar's first care was to pacify Italy. His moderation and
prudence won all classes to his side. Many had looked to see the
terrible scenes of the days of Marius and Sulla re-enacted. Caesar,
however, soon gave assurance that life and property should be
held sacred. He needed money ; but to avoid laying a tax upon
the people, he asked for the treasure kept beneath the Capitol.
Legend declared that this gold was the actual ransom-money
which Brennus had demanded of the Romans and which Camillus
had saved by his timely appearance (see p. 239). It was esteemed

THE BATTLE OF PHARSALUS, 313

sacred, and was never to be used save in case of another Gallic
invasion. When Caesar attempted to get possession of the treasure,
the tribune Metellus prevented him ; but Caesar impatiently
brushed him aside, saying, " The fear of a Gallic invasion is over :
I have subdued the Gauls."

With order restored in Italy, Caesar's next movement was to
gain control of the wheat-fields of Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa. A
single legion brought over Sardinia without resistance to the side
of Caesar. Cato, the lieutenant of Pompey, fled from before Curio
out of Sicily. In Africa, however, the lieutenant of Caesar sustained
a severe defeat, and the Pompeians held their ground there until
the close of the war. Caesar, meanwhile, had subjugated Spain.
In forty days the entire peninsula was brought under his authority.
Massilia had ventured to close her gates against the conqueror ;
but a brief siege forced the city to capitulate. Caesar was now
free to turn his forces against Pompey in the East.

The Battle of Pharsalus (48 b.c). — From Brundisium Caesar
embarked his legions for Epirus. The passage was an enterprise
attended with great danger ; for Bibulus, Pompey's admiral, swept
the sea with his fleets. It was not without having sustained severe
losses that Caesar effected a landing upon the shores of Greece.
His legions mustered barely 20,000 men. Pompey's forces were
at least double this number. Caesar's attempt to capture the
camp of his rival at Dyrrachium having failed, he slowly retired
into Thessaly, and drew up his army upon the plains of Pharsalus.
Here he was followed by Pompey. The adherents of the latter
were so confident of an easy victory that they were already dis-
puting about the offices at Rome, and were renting the most
eligible houses fronting the public squares of the capital. The
battle was at length joined. It proved Pompey's Waterloo.
His army was cut to pieces. He himself fled from the field, and
escaped to Egypt. Just as he was landing, he was stabbed by
one of his former lieutenants, now an officer at the Egyptian
court. The reigning Ptolemy had ordered Pompey's assassination

314 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

in hopes of pleasing Caesar. " If we receive him," said he, " we
shall make Caesar our enemy and Pompey our master."

The head of the great general was severed from his body ; and
when Caesar, who was pressing after Pompey in hot pursuit, landed
in Egypt, the bloody trophy was brought to him. He turned from
the sight with generous tears. It was no longer the head of his
rival, but of his old associate and son-in-law. He ordered his
assassins to be executed, and directed that fitting obsequies should
be performed over his body.

Close of the Civil War. — Caesar was detained at Alexandria
nine months in settling a dispute respecting the throne of Egypt.
After a severe contest he overthrew the reigning Ptolemy, and
secured the kingdom to the celebrated Cleopatra and a younger
brother. Intelligence was now brought from Asia Minor that
Pharnaces, son of Mithradates the Great, was inciting a revolt
among the peoples of that region. Caesar met the Pontic king at
Zela, defeated him, and in five days put an end to the war. His
laconic message to the Senate, announcing his victory, is famous.
It ran thus : ''Vent, vidi, vici,^^ — " I came, I saw, I conquered."

Caesar now hurried back to Italy, and thence proceeded to
Africa, which the friends of the old republic had made their last
chief rallying-place. At the great battle of Thapsus (46 b.c.)
they were crushed. Fifty thousand lay dead upon the field.
Cato, who had been the very life and soul of the army, refusing
to outlive the republic, took his own life.

Caesar's Triumph. — Caesar was now virtually lord of the
Roman world.^ Although he refrained from assuming the title of
king, no Eastern monarch was ever possessed of more absolute
power, or surrounded by more abject flatterers and sycophants.
He was invested with all the offices and dignities of the state.
The Senate made him perpetual dictator, and conferred upon him
the powers of censor, consul, and tribune, with the titles of Pon-

1 The sons of Pompey — Gnceus and Sextus — still held Spain. Caesar over-
threw their power in the decisive battle of Munda, 45 B.C.

CMSAR AS A STATESMAN. 315

tifex Maximus and Imperator. " He was to sit in a golden chair
in the Senate-house, his image was to be borne in the procession
of the gods, and the seventh month of the year was changed in
his honor from QuintiUs to JuHus [whence our July]."

His triumph celebrating his many victories far eclipsed in mag-
nificence anything that Rome had before witnessed. In the
procession were led captive princes from all parts of the world.
Beneath his standards marched soldiers gathered out of almost
every country beneath the heavens. Seventy-five million dollars
of treasure were displayed. Splendid games and tables attested
the liberality of the conqueror. Sixty thousand couches were set
for the multitudes. The shows of the theatre and the combats of
the arena followed one another in an endless round. " Above the
combats of the amphitheatre floated for the first time the awning
of silk, the immense velarium of a thousand colors, woven from
the rarest' and richest products of the East, to protect the people
from the sun " (Gibbon).

Caesar as a Statesman. — Caesar was great as a general, yet
greater, if possible, as a statesman. The measures which he in-
stituted evince profound political sagacity and surprising breadth
of view. He sought to reverse the jealous and narrow policy
of Rome in the past, and to this end rebuilt both Carthage and
Corinth and founded numerous colonies in all the different prov-
inces, in which he settled about 100,000 of the poorer citizens of
the capital. Upon some of the provincials he conferred full
Roman citizenship, and upon others Latin rights (see p. 247, note),
and thus strove to blend the varied peoples and races within the
boundaries of the empire into a real nationality, with community
of interests and sympathies. He reformed the calendar so as to
bring the festivals once more in their proper seasons, and provided
against further confusion by making the year consist of 365 days,
with an added day for every fourth or leap year.

Besides these achievements, Caesar projected many vast under-
takings, which the abrupt termination of his life prevented his car-
rying into execution. He ordered a survey of the enormous

316 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

domains of the state ; he proposed to make a code or digest of
the Roman laws — which work was left to be performed by the
Emperor Justinian six centuries later ; he also planned many
public works and improvements at Rome, among which were
schemes for draining the Pontine Marshes and for changing the
course of the Tiber. He further proposed to cut a canal across
the Isthmus of Corinth, to construct roads over the Apennines,
and to form a library to take the place of the great Alexandrian
collection, which had been partly destroyed during his campaign
in Egypt. But all his plans were brought to a sudden end by the
daggers of assassins.

The Death of Caesar (^44 b.c.) . — Caesar had his bitter personal
enemies, who never ceased to plot his downfall. There were, too,
sincere lovers of the old republic, who longed to see restored the
liberty which the conqueror had overthrown. The impression
began to prevail that Caesar was aiming to make himself king. A
crown was several times offered him in public by Mark Antony ;
but seeing the manifest displeasure of the people, he each time
pushed it aside. Yet there is no doubt that secretly he desired it.
It was reported that he proposed to rebuild the walls of Troy,
whence the Roman race had sprung, and make that ancient capital
the seat of the new Roman empire. Others professed to believe
that the arts and charms of the Egyptian Cleopatra, who had
borne him a son at Rome, would entice him to make Alexandria
the centre of the proposed kingdom. So, many, out of love for
Rome and the old republic, were led to enter into a conspiracy
against the life of Caesar with those who sought to rid themselves
of the dictator for other and personal reasons.

The Ides (the 15th day) of March, 44 B.C., upon which day
the Senate convened, witnessed the assassination. Seventy or
eighty conspirators, headed by Cassi'us and Brutus, both of whom
had received special favors from the hands of Caesar, were con-
cerned in the plot. The soothsayers must have had some knowl-
edge of the plans of the conspirators, for they had warned Caesar
to " beware of the Ides of March." On his way to the Senate-

FUNERAL ORATION BY MARK ANTONY.

317

meeting that day, a paper warning him of his danger was thrast
into his hand ; but, not suspecting its urgent nature, he did not
open it. As he entered the assembly chamber he observed the
astrologer Spurinna, and remarked carelessly to him, referring to
his prediction, " The Ides of March have come." " Yes," replied
Spurinna, " but not gone."

No sooner had Caesar taken his seat than the conspirators
crowded about him as if to present a petition. Upon a signal
from one of their number their daggers were drawn. For a
moment Csesar defended himself; but seeing Brutus, upon whom
he had lavished gifts and favors, among the conspirators, he is
said to have exclaimed reproachfully, ''Et tu, Brute / " — " Thou,
too, Brutus ! " drew his mantle over
his face, and received iinresistingly
their further thrusts. Pierced with
twenty-three wounds, he sank dead at
the foot of Pompey's statue.

Funeral Oration by Mark An-
tony. — The conspirators, or " libera-
tors," as they called themselves, had
thought that the Senate would con-
firm, and the people applaud, their
act. But both people and senators,
struck with consternation, were silent.
Men's faces grew pale as they re-
called the proscriptions of Sulla, and
saw in the assassination of Caesar the first act in a similar reign
of terror. As the conspirators issued from the assembly hall, and
entered the Forum, holding aloft their bloody daggers, instead of
the expected acclamations they were met by an ominous silence.
The liberators hastened for safety to the Temple of Jupiter Capi-
tolinus, going thither ostensibly for the purpose of giving thanks
for the death of the t}Tant,

Upon the day set for the funeral ceremonies, Mark Antony, the
trusted friend and secretary of Caesar, mounted the rostrum in the

MARK ANTONY.

318

LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

Forum to deliver the usual faneral oration. He recounted the
great deeds of Caesar, the glory he had conferred upon the Roman
name, dwelt upon his liberality and his munificent bequests to the
people — even to some who were now his murderers ; and when
he had wrought the feelings of the multitude to the highest ten-
sion, he held up the robe of Caesar, and showed the rents made by
the daggers of the assassins. Caesar had always been beloved
by the people and idolized by his soldiers. They were now driven
almost to frenzy with grief and indignation. Seizing weapons and

torches, they rushed
through the streets,
vowing vengeance
upon the conspira-
tors. The liberators,
however, escaped
from the fury of the
mob and fled from
Rome, Brutus and
Cassius seeking
refuge in Greece.

The Second Tri-
umvirate. — Anto-
ny had gained pos-
session of the will
and papers of Cae-
sar, and now, under
color of carrying
out the testament
of the dictator, ac-
cording to a decree
of the Senate, en-
tered upon a course
^ of high-handed

usurpation. He was aided in his designs by Lepidus, one of Caesar's
old Ueutenants. Very soon he was exercising all the powers of

JULIUS C/ESAR.
(From a Bust in the Museum of the Louvre.)

THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE. 319

a real dictator. " The tyrant is dead," said Cicero, " but the
tyranny still lives." This was a bitter commentary upon the words
of Brutus, who, as he drew his dagger from the body of Caesar,
turned to Cicero, and exclaimed, "Rejoice, O Father of your
Country, for Rome is free." Rome could not be free, the re-
public could not be re-established, because the old love for virtue
and liberty had died out from among the people — had been
overwhelmed by the rising tide of vice, corruption, sensuality,
and irreligion that had set in upon the capital.

To what length Antony would have gone in his career of usurpa-
tion it is difficult to say, had he not been opposed at this point by
Gaius Octavius, the grand-nephew of Julius Caesar, and the one
whom he had named in his will as his heir and successor. Upon
the Senate declaring in favor of Octavius, civil war immediately
broke out between him and Antony and Lepidus. After several
indecisive battles between the forces of the rival competitors,
Octavius proposed to Antony and Lepidus a reconciliation. The
three met on a small island in the Rhenus, a litde stream in
northern Etruria, and there formed a league known as the Second
Triumvirate (43 B.C.).

The plans of the triumvirs were infamous. They first divided
the world among themselves : Octavius was to have the govern-
ment of the West ; Antony, that of the East ; while to Lepidus
fell the control of Africa. A general proscription, such as had
marked the coming to power of Sulla (see p. 297), was then re-
solved upon. It was agreed that each should give up to the
assassin such friends of his as had incurred the ill will of either of
the other triumvirs. Under this arrangement Octavius gave up
his friend Cicero, — who had incurred the hatred of Antony by
opposing his schemes, — and allowed his name to be put at the
head of the list of the proscribed.

The friends of the orator urged him to flee the country. " Let
me die," said he, "in my fatherland, which I have so often
saved ! " His attendants were hurrying him, half unwilling,
towards the coast, when his pursuers came up and despatched him

320 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

in the litter in which he was being carried. His head was taken
to Rome, and set up in front of the rostrum, " from which he
had so often addressed the people with his eloquent appeals for
liberty." It is told that Fulvia, the wife of Antony, ran her gold
bodkin through the tongue, in revenge for the bitter philippics it
had uttered against her husband. The right hand of the victim
— the hand that had penned the eloquent orations — was nailed
to the rostrum.

Cicero was but one victim among many hundreds. All the
dreadful scenes of the days of Sulla were re-enacted. Three hun-
dred senators and two thousand knights were murdered. The
estates of the wealthy were confiscated, and conferred by the tri-
umvirs upon their friends and favorites.

Last Struggle of the Republic at Philippi (42 b.c). — The
friends of the old republic, and the enemies of the triumvirs, were
meanwhile rallying in the East. Brutus and Cassius were the ani-
mating spirits. The Asiatic provinces were plundered to raise
money for the soldiers of the liberators. Octavius and Antony, as
soon as they had disposed of their enemies in Italy, crossed the
Adriatic into Greece, to disperse the forces of the republicans
there. The liberators, advancing to meet them, passed over the
Hellespont into Thrace.

Tradition tells how one night a spectre appeared to Brutus and
seemed to say, " I am thy evil genius ; we will meet again at Phi-
lippi." At Philippi, in Thrace, the hostile armies did meet (42 B.C.).
In two successive engagements the new levies of the liberators
were cut to pieces, and both Brutus and Cassius, believing the
cause of the republic forever lost, committed suicide. It was,
indeed, the last effort of the republic. The history of the events
that lie between the action at Philippi and the establishment of
the empire is simply a record of the struggles among the triumvirs
for the possession of the prize of supreme power. After various
redistributions of provinces, Lepidus was at length expelled from
the triumvirate, and then again the Roman world, as in the times

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 321

of Csesar and Pompey, was in the hands of two masters — Antony
in the East, and Octavius in the West.

Antony and Cleopatra. — After the battle of Philippi, Antony
went into Asia for the purpose of settling the affairs of the prov-
inces and vassal states there. He summoned Cleopatra, the fair
queen of Egypt, to meet him at Tarsus, in Cilicia, there to give
account to him for the aid she had rendered the liberators. She
obeyed the summons, relying upon the power of her charms to
appease the anger of the triumvir. She ascended the Cydnus in a
gilded barge, with oars of silver and sails of purple silk. Beneath
awnings wrought of the richest manufactures of the East, the
beautiful queen, attired to personate Venus, reclined amidst lovely
attendants dressed to represent cupids and nereids. Antony was
completely fascinated, as had been the great Caesar before him,
by the dazzling beauty of the " Serpent of the Nile." Enslaved
by her enchantments, and charmed by her brilliant wit, in the
pleasure of her company he forgot all else — ambition and honor
and country.

The days and nights were spent in one round of banquets,
games, and revelries. It is said that the queen, at the close of
a banquet, in order to win a wager that she could consume
10,000,000 sesterces at one meal, dissolved, in a cup of vinegar, a
pearl of fabulous worth, and then carelessly swallowed the costly
draught. In ingenious ways she amused the Roman voluptuary,
arraying herself now as Venus and then as Isis, while he perso-
nated Bacchus and Osiris. Upon their fishing excursions she
employed divers to fasten enormous fishes to the hook of her
lover.

Once, indeed, Antony did rouse himself and break away from
his enslavement, to lead the Roman legions against the Parthians.
With an army of 100,000 men he crossed the Euphrates and
the Tigris, and with reckless daring plunged amidst the defiles
and snowy passes of the mountains beyond. But the storms
of approaching winter, and the incessant attacks of the Parthian
cavalry, at length forced him to make a hurried and disastrous

322 LAS7' CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

retreat. The loss, the suffering, and the disgrace attending this
ill-fated expedition rivalled the calamities and dishonor of the
memorable defeat of Crassus. Antony hastened back to Egypt,
and sought to forget his shame and disappointment amidst the
revels of the Egyptian court.

The Battle of Actium (31 b.c). — Affairs could not long con-
tinue in their present course. Antony had put away his faithful
wife Octavia for the beautiful Cleopatra. It was whispered at
Rome, and not without truth, that he proposed to make Alexan-
dria the capital of the Roman world, and announce Csesarion, son
of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, as heir of the empire. All Rome
was stirred. It was evident that a conflict was at hand in which
the question for decision would be whether the West should rule
the East, or the East rule the West. All eyes were instinctively
turned to Octavius as the defender of Italy, and the supporter of
the sovereignty of the Eternal City. Both parties made the most
gigantic preparations. Octavius met the combined fleets of Antony
and Cleopatra just off the promontory of Actium, on the Grecian
coast. While the issue of the battle that there took place was yet
undecided, Cleopatra turned her galley in flight. The Egyptian
ships, to the number of fifty, followed her example. Antony, as
soon as he perceived the withdrawal of Cleopatra, forgot all else,
and followed in her track with a swift galley. Overtaking the
fleeing queen, the infatuated man was received aboard her vessel,
and became her partner in the disgraceful flight.

The abandoned fleet and army surrendered to Octavius. The
conqueror was now sole master of the civilized world. From this
decisive battle (31 B.C.) are usually dated the end of the republic
and the beginning of the empire. Some, however, make the estab-
lishment of the empire date from the year 2 7 b.c, as it was not
until then that Octavius was formally invested with imperial powers.

Deaths of Antony and Cleopatra. — Octavius pursued Antony
to Egypt, where the latter, deserted by his army, and informed
by a messenger from the false queen that she was dead, committed
suicide. This was exactly what Cleopatra anticipated he would

DEATHS OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 323

do, and hoped thus to rid herself of a now burdensome lover.
When, however, the dying Antony, in accordance with his wish,
was borne to her, the old love returned, and he expired in her
arms.

Cleopatra then sought to enslave Octavius with her charms ;
but, failing in this, and becoming convinced that he proposed to
take her to Rome that she might there grace his triumph, she
took her own life, being in the thirty-eighth year of her age.
Tradition says that she effected her purpose by applying a poison-
ous asp to her arm. But it is really unknown in what way she
killed herself. It is only certain that, when the chamber of the
mausoleum in which she had shut herself up was one day entered
by the officers of Octavius, she was found lying dead among her
attendants, with no mark of injury upon her body.

324 LAST CENTURY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC,

CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

B.C.

Republic established and first consuls elected . 509

First secession of plebeians 494

Cincinnatus made dictator 458

Election of first decemvirs 451

First censors elected 444

Capture of Veil 396

Sack of Rome by Gauls under Brennus 390

Samnite wars 343-290

War with Pyrrhus 282-272

First Punic War 264-241

Second Punic War 218-201

Third Punic War 149-146

Destruction of Numantia 133

First Servile War 134-132

Jugurthine War 111-104

Marius defeats the Teutones and Cimbri 1 02-101

Civil Wars between Marius and Sulla 88-82

Pompey defeats Mediterranean pirates 66

Conspiracy of Catiline 64-62

First triumvirate formed 60

Conquests of Caesar in Gaul and Britain 58-5 1

Battle of Pharsalus; Pompey flees to Egypt and is murdered ... 48

Battle of Thapsus; Caesar becomes dictator of Roman world ... 46

Murder of Caesar 44

Battle of Philippi ; deaths of Brutus and Cassius 42

Republic ends with battle of Actium between Octavius and Antony . 31

REIGN OF AUGUSTUS C^SAR. 325

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

(From 31 B.C. to a.d. 180.)

Reign of Augustus Caesar (31 b.c. to a.d. 14). — The hundred
years of strife which ended with the battle of Actium left the
Roman republic, exhausted and helpless, in the hands of one wise
enough and strong enough to remould its crumbling fragments in
such a manner that the state, which seemed ready to fall to pieces,
might prolong its existence for another five hundred years. It was
a great work thus to create anew, as it were, out of anarchy and
chaos, a political fabric that should exhibit such elements of per-
petuity and strength. "The establishment of the Roman empire,"
says Merivale, " was, after all, the greatest political work that any
human being ever wrought. The achievements of Alexander, of
Caesar, of Charlemagne, of Napoleon, are not to be compared
with it for a moment."

The government which Octavius established was a monarchy in
fact, but a republic in form. Mindful of the fate of Julius Caesar,
who fell because he gave the lovers of the republic reason to
think that he coveted the title of king, Octavius carefully veiled
his really absolute sovereignty under the forms of the old repub-
lican state. The Senate still existed ; but so completely subjected
were its members to the influence of the conqueror that the only
function it really exercised was the conferring of honors and titles
and abject flatteries upon its master. All the republican officials
remained ; but Octavius absorbed and exercised their chief powers
and functions. He had the powers of consul, tribune, censor, and
Pontifex Maximus. All the republican magistrates — the consuls,
the tribunes, the praetors — were elected as usual; but they were
simply the nominees and creatures of the emperor. They were

326

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

the effigies and figure-heads to delude the people into believing
that the republic still existed. Never did a people seem more
content with the shadow after the loss of the substance.

The Sen-
ate, acting
under the
inspiration
of Octavius,
withhe Id
f r o m him
the title of

king, which ever since the ex-
pulsion of the Tarquins, five
centuries before this time, had
been intolerable to the peo-
ple ; but they conferred upon
him the titles of Imperator
and Augustus, the latter hav-
ing been hitherto sacred to the
gods. The sixth month of the
Roman year was called Au-
gustus (whence our August)
in his honor, an act in imi-
tation of that by which the
preceding month had been
given the name of Julius in
honor of Julius Caesar.

The domains over which
Augustus held sway were im-
perial in magnitude. They
stretched from the Atlantic
to the Euphrates, and upon
the north were hemmed by
the forests of Germany and Augustus.

the bleak steppes of Scythia, and were bordered on the south by

REIGM OF AUGUSTUS C^SAR. 327

the sands of the African desert and the dreary wastes of Arabia,
which seemed the boundaries set by nature to dominion in those
directions. Within these Hmits were crowded more than 100,000,-
000 people, embracing every conceivable condition and variety in
race and culture, from the rough barbarians of Gaul to the refined
voluptuary of the East.

Octavius was the first to moderate the ambition of the Romans,
and to counsel them not to attempt to conquer any more of the
world, but rather to devote their energies to the work of consoli-
dating the domains already acquired. He saw the dangers that
would attend any further extension of the boundaries of the state.

The reign of Augustus lasted forty-four years, from 3 1 B.C. to a.d.
14. It embraced the most splendid period of the annals of Rome.
Under the patronage of the emperor, and that of his favorite
minister Maecenas, poets and writers flourished and made this the
"golden age" of Latin literature. During this reign Virgil com-
posed his immortal epic of the /Sneid, and Horace his famous
odes ; while Livy wrote his inimitable history, and Ovid his Meta-
morphoses. Many who lamented the fall of the republic sought
solace in the pursuit of letters ; and in this they were encouraged
by Augustus, as it gave occupation to many restless spirits that
would otherwise have been engaged in political intrigues against
his government.

Augustus was also a munificent patron of architecture and art.
He adorned the capital with many splendid structures. Said he
proudly, " I found Rome a city of brick ; I left it a city of mar-
ble." The population of the city at this time was probably about
1,000,000. Two other cities of the empire, Antioch and Alexan-
dria, are thought to have had each about this same number of
citizens. These cities, too, were made magnificent with architec-
tural and art embellishments.

Although the government of Augustus was disturbed by some
troubles upon the frontiers, still never before, perhaps, did the
world enjoy so long a period of general rest from the preparation
and turmoil of war. Three times during this auspicious reign the

328 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

gates of the Temple of Janus at Rome, which were open in time
of war and closed in time of peace, were shut. Only twice before
during the entire history of the city had they been closed, so con-
stantly had the Roman people been engaged in war. It was in
the midst of this happy reign, when profound peace prevailed
throughout the civilized world, that Christ was born in Bethlehem
of Judea. The event was unheralded at Rome ; yet it was filled
with profound significance, not only for the Roman empire, but
for the world.

The latter years of the life of Augustus were clouded both by
domestic bereavement and national disaster. His beloved nephew
Marcellus, and his two grandsons, Gaius and Lucius, whom he
purposed making his heirs, were all removed by death ; and then,
far away in the German forest, his general Varus, who had at-
tempted to rule the freedom-loving Teutons as he had governed
the abject Asiatics of the Eastern provinces, was surprised by the
barbarians, led by their brave chief Hermann, — called Arminius
by the Romans, — and his army destroyed almost to a man (a.d. 9) .
Twenty thousand of the legionaries lay dead and unburied in the
tangled woods and morasses of Germany.

The disaster caused great consternation at Rome ; for it was
feared that the German tribes would now cross the Rhine, effect
an alliance with the Gauls, and then that these united hordes
would pour over the Alps into Italy. Augustus, wearied and worn
already with advancing age, the cares of empire, and domestic
affliction, was inconsolable. He paced his palace in agony, and
kept exclaiming, " O Varus ! Varus ! give me back my legions ! give
me back my legions ! " But Tiberius, whom Augustus, after the
death of Gaius and of Lucius, had appointed his heir and suc-
cessor, so carefully guarded the Rhine that the Germans did not at-
tempt the passage, and Italy was saved from the threatened invasion.

The victory of Arminius over the Roman legions was an event
of the greatest significance in the history of European civilization.
Germany was almost overrun by the Roman army. The Teutonic
tribes were on the point of being completely subjugated and

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REIGN OF TIBERIUS. 329

Romanized, as had been the Celts of Gaul before them. Had
this occurred, the entire history of Europe would have been
changed ; for the Germanic element is the one that has given
shape and color to the important events of the last fifteen hundred
years. Among these barbarians, too, were our ancestors. Had
Rome succeeded in exterminating or enslaving them, Britain, as
Creasy says, might never have received the name of England, and
the great English nation might never have had an existence.'

In the year a.d. 14, Augustus died, having reached the seventy-
sixth year of his age. His last words to the friends gathered
about his bedside were, " If I have acted well my part in life's
drama, greet my departure with your applause." It was believed
that the soul of Augustus ascended idsibly amidst the flames of
his funeral pyre. By decree of the Senate divine worship was
accorded to him, and temples were erected in his honor.

One of the most important of the acts of Augustus, in its in-
fluence upon following events, was the formation of the Prseto-
rian Guard, which was designed for a sort of body-guard to the
emperor. In the succeeding reign this body of soldiers, about
10,000 in number, was given a permanent camp alongside the
city walls. It soon became a formidable power in the state, and
made and unmade emperors at will.

Reign of Tiberius (a.d. 14-37). — Tiberius succeeded to an
unlimited sovereignty. The Senate conferred upon him all the
titles that had been worn by Augustus. One of the first acts of
Tiberius gave the last blow to the ancient republican institutions.
He took away from the popular assembly the privilege of electing
the consuls and praetors, and bestowed the same upon the Senate,
which, however, must elect from candidates presented by the
emperor. As the Senate was the creation of the emperor, who as

1 " We stand here at a turning-point in national destinies. History, too,
has its flow and its ebb; here, after the tide of Roman sway over the world
has attained its height, the ebb sets in. Northward of Italy the Roman rule
had for a few years reached as far as the Elbe ; after the battle of Varus its
bounds were the Rhine and the Danube." — Mommsen.

330 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

censor made up the list of its members, he was now of course the
source and fountain of all patronage. During the first years of
his reign, Tiberius used his practically unrestrained authority with
moderation and justice, being seemingly desirous of promoting the
best interests of all classes in his vast empire.

TIBERIUS.
(From a Bust in the Capitoline Museum.)

The beginning of his reign was marked by revolts among the
legions, the most serious discontent manifesting itself among those
guarding the Rhine, who wished to raise to the throne their favor-
ite general Germanicus, nephew of Tiberius. But Germanicus
sternly refused to take part in such an act of treachery, reproved
his soldiers, and then drew their attention from such thoughts of

REIGN OF TIBERIUS. 331

disloyalty by leading them across the Rhine to recover the lost
standards of Varus. He was so far successful in this bold enter-
prise as to retake the lost eagles and capture the wife of Arminius.
But at this moment, when Germanicus seemed on the point of
laying the Roman yoke upon the tribes of Germany, Tiberius,
moved, it is conjectured, by jealousy,' recalled him from the Rhen-
ish frontier, and sent him into the Eastern provinces, where he
soon after died, having been poisoned, as was charged, by an
agent of the jealous emperor.

Despotic power is a dangerous possession, likely to prove
terribly harmful to him who wields it, as well as to those over
whom it is exercised. Very few natures can withstand the seduc-
tive temptations, the corrupting influences, of ' unrestrained and
irresponsible authority.^ Hence the long series of excesses and
crimes which we shall now find making up a large part of the
annals of the Roman emperors.

Whatever may have been the intentions with which Tiberius
began his reign he soon yielded to the promptings of a aaturally
cruel, suspicious, and jealous nature, and entered upon a course of
the most high-handed tyranny. He enforced oppressively an old
law, knowTi as the Law of Majestas, which made it a capital
offence for any one to speak a careless word, or even to entertain

^ Other motives doubtless concurred. " They [Augustus and Tiberius] rec-
ognized the plans pursued by them for twenty years for the changing of the
boundary to the north as incapable of execution, and the subjugation and mas-
tery of the region between the Rhine and the Elbe appeared to them to tran-
scend the resources of the empire." — MOMMSEN.

2 " Tiberius, Caligula, Qaudius, and Nero [were] men whose names burnt
thems-elves forever into the memory of the race. All these men, in different
ways, illustrated the terrible efficacy of absolute world-dominion to poison the
character and even to unhinge the intellect of him who wielded it. Standing
as it were on the Mount of Temptation, and seeing all the kingdoms of the
world and all the glory of them stretched at an immeasurable distance below
their feet, they were seized with a dizziness of soul, and, professing themselves
to be gods, did deeds at the instigation of their wild hearts and whirling
brains such as men still shudder to think of." — Hodgkin.

332 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

an unfriendly thought, respecting the emperor. " It was danger-
ous to speak, and equally dangerous to keep silent," says Leighton,
"for silence even might be construed into discontent." Rewards
were offered to informers, and hence sprang up a class of persons
called " delators," who acted as spies upon society. Often false
charges were made, to gratify personal enmity ; and many, espe-
cially of the wealthy class, were accused and put to death that
their property might be confiscated.

Tiberius appointed, as his chief minister and as commander of
the praetorians, one Sejanus, a man of the lowest and most corrupt
life. This officer actually persuaded Tiberius to retire to the
little island of Caprese, in the Bay of Naples, and leave to him the
management of affairs at Rome. The emperor built several villas
in different parts of the beautiful islet, and, having gathered a
band of congenial companions, passed in this pleasant retreat the
later years of his reign. Both Tacitus the historian and Suetonius
the biographer tell many stories of the scandalous profligacy
of the ftmperor's life on the island ; but these tales, it should be
added, are discredited by some.

Meanwhile, Sejanus was ruling at Rome very much according
to his own will. No man's life was safe. He even grew so bold
as to plan the assassination of the emperor himself. His designs,
however, became known to Tiberius ; and the infamous and dis-
loyal minister was arrested and put to death.

After the execution of his minister, Tiberius ruled more des-
potically than before. Multitudes sought refuge from his tyranny
in suicide. Death at last reheved the world of the monster. His
end was probably hastened by his attendants, who are believed
to have smothered him in his bed, as he lay dying.

It was in the midst of the reign of Tiberius that, in a remote
province of the Roman empire, the Saviour was crucified. Ani-
mated by an unparalleled missionary spirit, his followers traversed
the length and breadth of the empire, preaching everywhere the
"glad tidings." Men's loss of faith in the gods of the old mythol-
ogies, the softening and liberaHzing influence of Greek culture,

REIGN OF CALIGULA. 333

the unification of the whole civilized world under a single govern-
ment, the widespread suffering and the inexpressible weariness
of the oppressed and servile classes, — all these things had pre-
pared the soil for the seed of the new doctrines. In less than
three centuries the Pagan empire had become Christian not only
in name, but also very largely in fact. This conversion of Rome
is one of the most important events in all history. A new ele-
ment is here introduced into civilization, an element which we
shall find giving color and character to very much of the story of
the eighteen centuries that we have yet to study.

Reign of Caligula (a.d. 37-41). — Gaius Csesar, better known
as Caligula, son of Germanicus, was only twenty-five years of age
when the death of Tiberius called him to the throne. His sur-
name Caligula was given him by the German legions, because, when
a little boy, he was kept by his father in the camp, and to please
the men, dressed like a little soldier with military buskins {caligcB),

His career was very similar to that of Tiberius. After a few
months spent in arduous application to the affairs of the empire,
during which time his many acts of kindness and piety won for
him the affections of all classes, the mind of the young emperor
became unsettled. His rest was feverish ; and often he paced the
halls of his palace the night through with wild and incoherent rav-
ings. He soon gave himself up to the most detestable dissipations.
The cruel sports of the amphitheatre possessed for him a strange
fascination. When animals failed, he ordered spectators to be
seized indiscriminately and thrown to the beasts. He even
entered the lists himself, and fought as a gladiator upon the arena.

Stories without number are told illustrating his insanities and
extravagances. He is said to have caused persons to be tortured
at his banquets, that their cries and groans might add to the enjoy-
ment of the meal. He lamented that no great calamity marked
his reign, such as that which had occurred in the reign of Tiberius,
when 50,000 persons lost their lives in the fall of the great
theatre at Fidenas. In a sanguinary mood, he wished that " the
people of Rome had but one neck." He built a bridge from his

334 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

palace on the Palatine to the temple on the Capitoline hill, that he
might be " next neighbor " to Jupiter. In order to rival the
Hellespontine bridges of Xerxes, he constructed a bridge over the
bay at Baise. The structure broke beneath the triumphal proces-
sion on the day of dedication ; and Caligula, delighted with the
spectacle of the struggling victims, forbade any one to attempt to
save the drowning.

It is said that he emulated the example of Cleopatra by dissolv-
ing cosdy gems and drinking them at a draught. A single dinner
cost 1400,000. As an insult to his nobles he gave out that he pro-
posed to make his favorite horse, Incitatus, consul, and frequently
invited the steed from his ivory stable to eat gilded grain at the im-
perial board. He personated in turn all the gods and goddesses,
arraying himself at one time as Hercules or Bacchus, and again
as Juno or Venus. He declared himself divine, set up his statues
for worship, and even removed the heads of Jupiter's statues and
put his own in their place.

During his reign he set out on an expedition against Britain ;
but on reaching the sea he set his soldiers to work collecting
shells along the beach, which " spoils of the ocean " he then sent
back to Rome as the trophies of his enterprise. A campaign
against the Germans ended at the Rhenish frontier with not cap-
tives enough in his hands for a triumph ; accordingly, he hired,
so the story runs, a great number of Gauls to personate German
prisoners, and thus suppUed the embarrassing deficiency.

After four years the insane career of Caligula was brought to
a close by some of the officers of the praetorian guard whom he
had wantonly insulted.

Reign of Claudius (a.d. 41-54). — The reign of Claudius,
Caligula's successor, was signalized by the conquest of Britain.
Nearly a century had now passed since the invasion of the island
by Julius Caesar, who, as has been seen (see p. 102), simply
made a reconnoissance of the island and then withdrew. Claudius
conquered all the southern portion of the island, and founded
many colonies, which in time became important centres of Roman

REIGN OF CLAUDIUS. 335

trade and culture. The leader of the Britons was Caractacus.
He was taken captive and carried to Rome. Gazing in astonish-
ment upon the magnificence of the imperial city, he exclaimed,
"How can people possessed of such splendor at home envy
Caractacus his humble cottage in Britain?"

Claudius distinguished his reign by the execution of many
important works. At the mouth of the Tiber he constructed a
magnificent harbor, called the Portus Romanus. The Claudian
Aqueduct, which he completed, was a stupendous work, bringing
water to the city from a distance of forty-five miles.

The delight of the people in gladiatorial shows had at this time
become almost an insane frenzy. Claudius determined to give an
entertainment that should render insignificant all similar efforts.
Upon a large lake, whose sloping bank afforded seats for the vast
multitude of spectators, he exhibited a naval battle, in which two
opposing fleets, bearing 19,000 gladiators, fought as though in
real battle, till the water was filled with thousands of bodies, and
covered with fragments of the broken ships.

Throughout his life Claudius was ruled by intriguing favorites
and unworthy wives. For his fourth wife he married the " wicked
Agrippina," who secured his death by means of a dish of poisoned
mushrooms, in order to make place for the succession of her son
Nero.

Reign of Nero (a.d. 54-68). — Nero was fortunate in having
for his preceptor the great philosopher and moralist Seneca ; but
never was teacher more unfortunate in his pupil. For five years
Nero, under the influence of Seneca and Burrhus, the latter the
commander of the praetorians, ruled with moderation and equity.
But his own mother, Agrippina, intrigued against him in favor of
a younger son ; and Nero, after failing in an attempt to drown
her while she was crossing the bay at Baiae, secured her death by
the hand of an assassin. He now broke away from the guidance
of his tutor Seneca, and entered upon a career filled with crimes
of almost incredible enormity. The dagger and poison were in
constant demand. The use of the latter had become a " fine art "

336 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

in the hands of a regular profession. Both were employed almost
unceasingly to remove persons that had incurred his hatred, or who
possessed wealth that he coveted. Like Caligula, he degraded
the imperial purple by contending in the gladiatorial combats of
the arena and in the games of the circus.

It was in the tenth year of his reign that the so-called Great
Fire laid more than half of Rome in ashes. Temples, monu-
ments, and buildings of every description were swept away by
the flames, that surged like a sea through the valleys and about
the base of the hills occupied by the city. The people, in the
dismay of the moment, were ready to catch up any rumor respect-
ing the origin of the fire. It was reported that Nero had ordered
the conflagration to be lighted, and that from the roof of his palace
he had enjoyed the spectacle, and amused himself by singing a
poem which he himself had written, entitled the "Sack of Troy."

Nero did everything in his power to discredit the rumor. He
went in person amidst the sufferers, and distributed money with
his own hand. To further turn attention from himself, he
accused the Christians of having conspired to destroy the city,
in order to help out their prophecies. The doctrine which was
taught by some of the new sect respecting the second coming of
Christ, and the destruction of the world by fire, lent color to the
charge. The persecution that followed was one of the most cruel
recorded in the history of the Church. Many victims were
covered with pitch and burned at night, to serve as torches in
the imperial gardens. Tradition preserves the names of the
apostles Peter and Paul as victims of this Neronian persecu-
tion.

As to Rome, the conflagration was a blessing in disguise.
Requisitions of money and material were made upon all the
Roman world for the rebuilding of the burnt districts. The city
rose from its ashes as quickly as Athens from her ruins at the
close of the Persian wars. The new buildings were made fire-
proof; and the narrow, crooked streets reappeared as broad and
beautiful avenues. Water was distributed from the aqueducts

REIGN OF NERO. 337

through all the houses and grounds. A considerable portion of
the burnt region was appropriated by Nero for the buildings and
grounds of an immense palace, called the " Golden House." It
covered so much space that the people " maliciously hinted "
that Nero had fired the old city in order to make room for it.

The emperor secured money for his enormous expenditures by
new extortions, murders, and confiscations. No one of wealth
knew but that his turn might come next. A conspiracy was
formed among the nobles to relieve the state of the monster.
The plot was discovered, and again " the city was filled with
funerals." Lucan the poet, and Seneca, the old preceptor of
Nero, both fell victims to the tyrant's rage.

Nero now made a tour through the East, and there plunged
deeper and deeper into every shame, sensuality, and crime. The
tyranny and the disgrace were no longer endurable. Almost at
the same moment the legions in several of the provinces revolted.
The Senate decreed that the emperor was a public enemy, and
condemned him to a disgraceful death by scourging, to avoid
which he instructed a slave how to give him a fatal thrust. His
last words were, " What a loss my death will be to art ! "

Nero was the sixth and last of the Julian line. The family of
the Great Csesar was now extinct ; but the name remained, and
was adopted by all the succeeding emperors.

Galba, Otho, and Vitellius (a.d. 68-69). — These three names
are usually grouped together, as their reigns were all . short and
uneventful. The succession, upon the death of Nero and the
extinction in him of the Julian line, was in dispute, and the
legions in different quarters supported the claims of their favor-
ite leaders. One after another the three aspirants named were
killed in bloody struggles for the imperial purple. The last,
Vitellius, was hurled from the throne by the soldiers of Vespasian,
the old and beloved commander of the legions in Palestine,
which were at this time engaged in war with the Jews.

Reign of Vespasian (a.d. 69-79).— The accession of Flavins
Vespasian marks the beginning of a period, embracing three

338

THE ROMAN EM FIRE.

reigns, known as the Flavian Age (a.d. 69-96). Vespasian's
reign was signalized both by important military achievements
abroad and by stupendous public works undertaken at Rome.

After one of the most harassing sieges recorded in history,
Jerusalem was taken by Titus, son of Vespasian. The Temple

was destroyed,
and more than
a million of
Jews that were
crowded in the
city are believed
to have perished.
Great multitudes
com OF VESPASIAN. Suffered death by

crucifixion. The miserable remnants of the nation were scattered
everywhere over the world. Josephus, the great historian, accom-
panied the conqueror to Rome. ' In imitation of Nebuchadnezzar,
Titus robbed the Temple of its sacred utensils, and bore them
away as trophies. Upon the triumphal arch at Rome that bears
his name may be seen at the present day the sculptured represen-
tation of the golden candlestick, which was one of the memorials
of the war.

In the opposite corner of the empire a dangerous revolt of the
Gauls was suppressed, and in the island of Britain the Roman
commander Agricola subdued or crowded back the native tribes
until he had extended the frontiers of the empire into what is now
Scotland. Then, as a protection against the incursions of the
Caledonians, the ancestors of the Scottish Highlanders, he con-
structed a line of fortresses from the Frith of Forth to the Frith
of Clyde.

Vespasian rebuilt the Capitoline temple, which had been burned
during the struggle between his soldiers and the adherents of
Vitellius ; he constructed a new forum which bore his own name ;
and also began the erection of the celebrated Flavian amphi-
theatre, which was completed by his successor. After a most

REIGN OF TITUS,

339

prosperous reign of ten years, Vespasian died a.d. 79, the first
emperor after Augustus that did not meet with a violent death.
At the last moment he requested his attendants to raise him upon
his feet that he might "die standing," as befitted a Roman
emperor.

TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS.
/Showing the Seven- branched Candlestick and Other Trophies from the Temple at Jerusalem )

Reign of Titus (a.d. 79-81). — In a short reign of two years
Titus won the tide, the " Delight of Mankind." He was un-
wearied in acts of benevolence and in bestowal of favors. Hav-
ing let a day slip by without some act of kindness performed,
he is said to have exclaimed reproachfully, " I have lost a day."

Titus completed and dedicated the great Flavian amphitheatre
begun by his father, Vespasian. This vast structure, which accom-
modated more than 80,000 spectators, is better known as the
Colosseum — a name given it either because of its gigantic pro-
poil'ons, or on account of a colossal statue of Nero ■which hap-
pened to stand near it.

340

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

The reign of Titus, though so short, was signalized by two great
disasters. The first was a conflagration at Rome, which was almost
as calamitous as the Great Fire in the reign of Nero. The second
was the destruction, by an eruption of Vesuvius, of the Campanian
cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities were buried
beneath showers of cinders, ashes, and streams of volcanic mud.
Pliny the Elder, the great naturalist, venturing too near the moun-
tain to investigate the phenomenon, lost his life.^

STREET IN POMPEII. (A Reconstruction.)

Domitian — Last of the Twelve Caesars (a.d. 81-96), — Domi-
tian, the brother of Titus, was the last of the line of emperors

^ In the year 1713, sixteen centuries after the destruction of the cities, the
ruins were discovered by some persons engaged in digging a well, and since
then extensive excavations have been made, which have uncovered a large
part of Pompeii, and revealed to us the streets, homes, theatres, baths, shops,
temples, and various monuments of the ancient city — all of which presents to
us a very vivid picture of Roman life during the imperial period, eighteen
hundred years ago.

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THE ROMAN EMPIRE
UNDER TRAJAN

A.D. 117.

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THE FIVE GOOD EMPERORS. 341

known as " the Twelve Caesars." The title, however, was assumed
by, and is applied to, all the succeeding emperors : the sole rea-
son that the first twelve princes are grouped together is because
the Roman biographer Suetonius completed the lives of that
number only.

Domitian's reign was an exact contrast to that of his brother
Titus. It was one succession of extravagances, tyrannies, confis-
cations, and murders. Under this emperor took place what is
known in church history as " the second persecution of the Chris-
tians." This class, as well as the Jews, were the special objects of
Domitian's hatred, because they refused to worship the statues of
himself which he had set up.

The last of the Twelve Caesars perished in his own palace, and
by the hands of members of his own household. The Senate
ordered his infamous name to be erased from the public monu-
ments, and to be blotted from the records of the Roman state.

The Five Good Emperors: Reign of Nerva (a.d. 96-98). —
The five emperors — Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two An-
tonines — that succeeded Domitian were elected by the Senate,
which during this period assumed something of its former weight
and influence in the affairs of the empire. The wise and benefi-
cent administration of the government by these rulers secured
for them the enviable distinction of being called " the five good
emperors." Nerva died after a short reign of sixteen months,
and the sceptre passed into the stronger hands of the able com-
mander Trajan, whom Nerva had previously made his associate in
the government.

Reign of Trajan (a.d. 98-117). — Trajan was a native of Spain,
and a soldier by profession and talent. His ambition to achieve
military renown led him to undertake distant and important con-
quests. It was the policy of Augustus — a policy adopted by
most of his successors — to make the Danube in Europe and the
Euphrates in Asia the limits of the Roman empire in those respec-
tive quarters. But Trajan determined to push the frontiers of his
dominions beyond both these rivers, scorning to permit Nature;,

342

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

by these barriers, to mark out the confines of Roman sovereignty.
He crossed the Danube by means of a bridge, the foundations
of which may still be seen, and subjugated the bold and warlike
Dacian tribes lying behind that stream — tribes that had often

threatened the peace of the
empire. After celebrating his
victories in a magnificent tri-
umph at Rome, Trajan turned
to the East, led his legions
across the Euphrates, re-
duced Armenia, and wrested
from the Parthians most of
the territory which anciently
formed the heart of the As-
syrian monarchy. To Tra-
jan belongs the distinction
of extending the boundaries
of the empire to the most
distant points to which Ro-
man ambition and prowess
were ever able to push them.
But Trajan was something
besides a soldier. He had
a taste for literature : Juve-
nal, Plutarch, and the younger
Pliny wrote under his pat-
ronage ; and, moreover, as
is true of almost all great
conquerors, he had a perfect
passion for building. Among
the great works with which
he embellished the capital was the Trajan Forum. Here he
erected the celebrated marble shaft known as Trajan's column.
It is 147 feet high, and is wound from base to summit with a
spiral band of sculptures, containing more than 25,000 human

TRAJAN.

REIGN OF TRAJAN.

343

figures. The column is nearly as perfect to-day as when reared
eighteen centuries ago. It was intended to commemorate the
Dacian conquests of Trajan j and its pictured sides are the best,
and almost the only, record we now possess of those wars.

Respecting the rapid spread of Christianity at this time, the
character of the early professors of the new faith, and the light
in which they were viewed by the rulers of the Roman world, we
have very important evidence in a certain letter written by Pliny
the Younger to the emperor in regard to the Christians of Pontus,
in Asia Minor, of which remote province Pliny was governor.

BES1E.GING A DACIAN CITY. (From Trajan's Column.)

Pliny speaks of the new creed as a '* contagious superstition, that
had seized not cities only, but the lesser towns also, and the open
country." Yet he could find no fault in the converts to the new
doctrines. Notwithstanding this, however, because the Christians
steadily refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, he ordered many
to be put to death for their " inflexible obstinacy."

Trajan died a.d. 117, after a reign of nineteen years, one of the
most prosperous and fortunate that had yet befallen the lot of the
Roman people.

Reign of Hadrian (a.d. i 17-138). — Hadrian, a kinsman of
Trajan, succeeded him in the imperial office. He possessed great
ability, and displayed admirable moderation and prudence in the

344

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

administration of the government. He gave up the territory con-
quered by Trajan in the East, and made the Euphrates once more
the boundary of the empire in that quarter. He also broke down
the bridge that Trajan had built over the Danube, and made that
stream the real, frontier line, notwithstanding the Roman garrisons
were still maintained in Dacia. Hadrian saw plainly that Rome
could not safely extend any more widely the frontiers of the
empire. Indeed, so active and threatening were the enemies of

the empire in the East, and so dar-
ing and numerous had now become
its barbarian assailants of the North,
that there was reason for the greatest
anxiety lest they should break through
even the old and strong lines of the
Danube and the Euphrates, and pour
their devastating hordes over the
provinces.

More than fifteen years of his reign
were spent by Hadrian in making
f tours of inspection through all the
I different provinces of the empire.
He visited Britain, and secured the
Roman possessions there against the
Picts and Scots by erecting a contin-
uous wall across the island. Next
he journeyed through Gaul and Spain,
and then visited in different tours all
the remaining countries bordering
upon the Mediterranean. He as-
cended the Nile, and, traveller-like,
carved his name upon the vocal Memnon. The cities which
he visited he decorated with temples, theatres, and other monu-
ments. Some places, however, including Antioch, which received
their emperor ungraciously, he neglected to make the recipients
of his royal liberahty. The atmosphere of Athens, with its

HADRIAN.

REIGN OF HADRIAN. 345

schools and scholars, was especially congenial to his inquiring
spirit ; and upon that city he lavished large sums in art adorn-
ments until it almost seemed as though the Periclean Age had
returned to the Attic capital.

In the year 131, the Jews in Palestine, who had in a measure
recovered from the blow Titus had given their nation, broke out
in desperate revolt, because of the planting of a Roman colony
upon the almost desolate site of Jerusalem, and the placing of
the statue of Jupiter in the Holy Temple. More than half a
million of Jews perished in the useless struggle, and the survivors
were driven into exile — the last dispersion of the race.

The latter years of his reign Hadrian passed at Rome. It was
here that this princely builder erected his most splendid structures.
Among these was the Mole, or Mausoleum, of Hadrian, an immense
structure surmounted by a gilded dome, erected on the banks of
the Tiber, and designed as a tomb for himse f (see p. 394).

With all his virtues, Hadrian was foolishly vain of his accom-
plishments, impatient of contradiction, and often most unrea-
sonable and imperious. It is related that he put to death the
architect Apollodorus for venturing to criticise the royal taste
in some architectural matter. Favorinus, the rhetorician, was
evidently more judicious ; for when asked " why he suffered
the emperor to silence him in an argument on a point of gram-
mar, he replied, * It is ill disputing with the master of thirty
legions.' "

The Antonines (a.d. 138-180). — Aurelius Antoninus, sumamed
Pius, the adopted son of Hadrian, and his successor, gave the
Roman empire an administration singularly pure and parental.
Of him it has been said that " he was the first, and, saving his
colleague and successor Aurelius, the only one of the emperors
who devoted himself to the task of government with a single
view to the happiness of his people." Throughout his long reign
of twenty-three years, the empire was in a state of profound
peace. The attention of the historian is attracted by no striking
events, which fact, as many have not failed to observe, illustrates

346

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

admirably the oft-repeated maxim, " Happy is that people whose
amials are brief."

Antoninus, early in his reign, united with himself in the govern-
ment his adopted son Marcus AureUus, and upon the death of the
former (a.d. i6i) the latter succeeded quietly to his place and
work. His studious habits won for him the title of " Philosopher."
He belonged to the school of the Stoics, and was a most thoughtful
writer. His Meditations breathe the tenderest sentiments of devo-
tion and benevolence, and make the nearest approach to the spirit
of Christianity of all the writings of Pagan antiquity. - He estab-
lished an institution or home for orphan girls ; and, finding the
poorer classes throughout Italy burdened by their taxes and

greatly in arrears in paying them, he
caused all the tax-claims to be heaped
in the Forum and burned.

The tastes and sympathies of Aure-
lius would have led him to choose a
life passed in retirement and study at
the capital ; but hostile movements of
the Parthians, and especially invasions
of the barbarians along the Rhenish
and Danubian frontiers, called him
from his books, and forced him to
spend most of the latter years of his
reign in the camp. The Parthians, who had violated their treaty
with Rome, were chastised by the lieutenants of the emperor,
and Mesopotamia again fell under Roman authority.

This war drew after it a series of terrible calamities. The
returning soldiers brought with them the Asiatic plague, which
swept off vast numbers, especially in Italy, where entire cities and
districts were depopulated. In the general distress and panic, the
superstitious people were led to believe that it was the new sect
of Christians that had called down upon the nation the anger of
the gods. AureKus permitted a fearful persecution to be instituted

ANTONINUS PIUS.
(From a Coin in the Berlin Museum.)

THE ANTONINES. 34T

against them, during which the celebrated Christian fathers and
bishops, Justin Martyr and Polycarp, suffered death.

It should be noted that the persecution of the Christians under
the Pagan emperors sprung from political rather than religious mo-
tives, and that this is why we find the names of the best emperors,
as well as those of the worst, in the list of persecutors. It was
believed that the welfare of the state was bound up with the care-
ful performance of the rites of the national worship ; and hence,
while the Roman rulers were usually very tolerant, allowing all
forms of worship among their subjects, still they required that men
of every faith should at least recognize the Roman gods, and bum
incense before their statues. This the Christians steadily refused
to do. Their neglect of the service of the temple, it was beUeved,
angered the gods, and endangered the safety of the state, bringing
upon it drought, pestilence, and every disaster. This was the
main reason of their persecution by the Pagan emperors.

But pestilence and persecution were both forgotten amidst the
imperative calls for immediate help that now came from the North.
The barbarians were pushing in the Roman outposts, and pouring
impetuously over the frontiers. To the panic of the plague was
added this new terror. Aurelius placed himself at the head of his
legions, and hurried beyond the Alps. For many years, amidst
the snows of winter and the heats of summer, he strove to beat
back the assailants of the empire.

Once his army was completely surrounded, and his soldiers
were dying of thirst, when a violent thunder-storm not only
relieved their sufferings, but also struck such terror into the bar-
barians as to scatter them in flight. The Romans thought that
Jupiter Tonans had interfered in their behalf; but the Christians
that made up the twelfth legion maintained that God had sent the
rain m answer to their prayers. The Christians, it is said by some,
received the title of the " Thundering Legion " ; while upon the
Column of Aurelius at Rome — where it may still be seen — was
carved the scene in which Olympian Jove the Thunderer is repre-
sented " raining and lightening out of heaven."

348

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

The efforts of the devoted Aurelius checked the inroads of the
barbarians ; but he could not subdue them, so weakened was the
empire by the ravages of the pestilence, and so exhausted was the
treasury from the heavy and constant drains upon it. At last his
weak body gave way beneath the hardships of his numerous cam-
paigns, and he died in his camp at Vindobona (now Vienna), in
the nineteenth year of his reign (a.d. i8o).

The united voice of the Senate and people pronounced him a
god, and divine worship was accorded to his statue. Never was
Monarchy so justified of her children as in the lives and works of
the Antonines. As Merivale, in dweUing upon their virtues, very
jusdy remarks, " the blameless career of these illustrious princes
has furnished the best excuse for Caesarism in all after-ages."

ROMAN EMPERORS FROM AUGUSTUS TO MARCUS AURELIUS.

(From 31 B.C. to a.d. 180.)

Augustus reigns . 31 B.C. to A.D. 14

Tiberius A.D. 14-37

Caligula 37-41

Claudius 4i~54

Nero 54-68

Galba 68-69

Otho 69

Vitellius 69

Vespasian 69-79

Titus A.D. 79-81

Domitian 81-96

Nerva 96-98

Trajan 98-117

Hadrian 11 7-138

Antoninus Pius 138-161

Marcus Aurelius .... 161-180
Verus associated with Au-
relius 161-169

The first eleven, in connection with Julius Caesar, are called the Twelve
Caesars. The last five (excluding Verus) are known as the Five Good
Entiperors.

349

UNDER THE EMPIRE

8CAL£ OF YARDS

I.

Colosseum.

IS-

2.

Arch of Constantine.

i6.

3-

Arch of Titus.

17-

4-

Via Sacra.

1 8.

5-

Via Nova.

19-

6.

Vicus Tuscus.

20.

7-

Vicus Jugarius.

21.

8.

Arch of Septimius Severus.

22.

9-

Qivus Capitolinus.

23.

lO.

Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus

24.

II.

Arch,

2,S-

12.

Column of Trajan.

26.

X3-

Column of Antonine.

27-

14. Baths of Agrippa.

28.

Pantheon.

Theatre of Pompey.
Portico of Pompey.
Circus Flaminius.
Tlieatre of Marcellus.
Forum Holitorium.
Forum Boarium.
Mausoleum of Augustus.
Mausoleum of Hadrian.
Baths of Constantine.
Baths of Diocletian.
Baths of Titus.
Baths of Caracalla.
Amphitheatrum Castrense.

350

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

CHAPTER IX.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE (a.d. 180-476): PAGANISM AND CHRIS-
TIANITY; THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS.

(a,d. 180-476.)

Reign of Commodus (a.d. 180-192). — Under the wise and able
administration of " the five good emperors " — Nerva, Trajan,
Hadrian, and the two Antonines — the Roman empire reached
its culmination in power and prosperity; and now, under the
enfeebling influences of vice and corruption within, and the heavy

blows of the barbarians
without, it begins to decline
rapidly to its fall.

Commodus, son of Mar-
cus Aurelius, and the last
of the Antonines, was a
most unworthy successor
of his illustrious father.
For three years, however,
surrounded by the able
generals and wise counsel-
lors that the prudent ad-
ministration of the preced-
ing emperors had drawn
to the head of affairs,
Commodus ruled with

COMMODUS (as Hercules). r • j i • i. u

fairness and lenity, when
an unsuccessful conspiracy against his life seemed suddenly to
kindle all the slumbering passions of a Nero. He secured the
favor of the rabble with the shows of the amphitheatre, and
purchased the support of the praetorians with bribes and flat-

"THE BARRACK EMPERORS?

351

teries. Thus he was enabled for ten years to retain the throne,
while perpetrating all manner of cruelties, and staining the impe-
rial purple with the most detestable debaucheries and crim_es.

Coramodus had a passion for gladiatorial combats, and attired
in a lion's skin, and armed with the club of Hercules, he valiantly
set upon and slew antagonists arrayed to represent mythological
monsters, and armed with great sponges for rocks. The Senate,
so obsequiously servile had that
body become, conferred upon
him the title of the Roman Her-
cules, and also voted him the
additional surnames of Pius and
Felix, and even proposed to
change the name of Rome and
call it Colonia Commodiana.

The empire was finally re-
lieved of the insane tyrant by
some members of the royal
household, who anticipated his
designs against themselves by
putting him to deatn.

"The Barrack Emperors." —
For neaxiy a century after the
death of Commodus (from a.d.
192 to 284), the emperors were
elected by the army, and hence the rulers for this period have
been called "the Barrack Emperors." The character of the
period is revealed by the fact that of the twenty-five emperors
who mounted the throne during this time, all except four came to
their deaths by violence. "Civil war, pestilence, bankruptcy,
were all brooding over the empire. The soldiers had forgotten
how to fight, the rulers how to govern." On every side the
barbarians were breaking into the empire to rob, to murder, and
• to bum.

PR/ETORIANS.

352 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

The Public Sale of the Empire (a.d. 193). — The beginning
of these troublous times was marked by a shameful proceeding on
the part of the praetorians. Upon the death of Commodus, Per-
tinax, a distinguished senator, was placed on the throne j but his
efforts to enforce discipline among the praetorians aroused their
anger, and he was slain by them after a short reign of only three
months. These soldiers then gave out notice that they would sell
the empire to the highest bidder. It was accordingly set up for
sale at the praetorian camp, and struck off to Didius Julianus, a
wealthy senator, who gave ^1000 to each of the 12,000 soldiers
at this time composing the guard. So the price of the 'empire
was about ^12,000,000.

But these turbulent and insolent soldiers at the capital of the
empire were not to have things entirely their own way. As soon
as the news of the disgraceful transaction reached the legions on
the frontiers, they rose as a single man in indignant revolt. Each
of the three armies that held the Euphrates, the Rhine, and the
Danube, proclaimed its favorite commander emperor. The leader
of the Danubian troops was Septimius Severus, a man of great
energy and force of character. He knew that there were other
competitors for the throne, and that the prize would be his who
first seized it. Instantly he set his veterans in motion and was
soon at Rome. The praetorians were no match for the trained
legionaries of the frontiers, and did not even attempt to defend
their emperor, who was taken prisoner and put to death after a
reign of sixty-five days.

Reign of Septimius Severus (a.d. 193-21 i). — One of the first
acts of Severus was to organize a new body-guard of 50,000
legionaries, to take the place of the unworthy praetorians, whom,
as a punishment for the insult they had offered to the Roman
state, he disbanded, and banished from the capital, and forbade
to approach within a hundred miles of its walls. He next crushed
his two rival competitors, and was then undisputed master of the
empire. He put to death forty senators for having favored his-
late rivals, and completely destroyed the power of that body.

REIGN OF CARACALLA.

353

Committing to the prefect of the new praetorian guard the man-
agement of affairs at the capital, Severus passed the greater part
of his long and prosperous reign upon the frontiers. At one time
he was chastising the Parthians beyond the Euphrates, and at
another, pushing back the Caledonian tribes fiom the Hadrian
wall in the opposite comer of his dominions. Finally, in Britain,
in his camp at York, death overtook him.

Reign of Caracalla (a.d. 211-217). — Severus conferred the
empire upon his two sons, Caracalla and Geta. Caracalla mur-
dered his brother, and then ordered Papinian, the celebrated
jurist, to make a public argument in vindication of the fratricide.
When that great lawyer refused, saying that " it was easier to com-
mit such a crime
than to justify
it," he put him
to death. Thou-
sands fell vic-
tims to his
senseless rage.
Driven by re-
morse and fear,
he fled from the
capital, and
■wandered about
the most distant
provinces. A t
Alexandria, o n
account of some

uncomplimentary remarks by the citizens upon his appearance,
he ordered a general massacre. Finally, after a reign of six years,
the monster was slain in a remote corner of Syria.

Caracalla's sole political act of real importance was the be-
stowal of citizenship upon all the free inhabitants of the empire ;
and this he did, not to give them a just privilege, but that he might
collect from them certain special taxes which only Roman citizens

CARACALLA.

354 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

had to pay. Before the reign of Caracalla it was only particular
classes of subjects, or the inhabitants of some particular city or
province, that, as a mark of special favor, had, from time to time,
been admitted to the rights of ci izenship (see pp. 291-293). By
this wholesale act of Caracalla, the entire population of the empire
was made Roman, at least in name and nominal privilege. " The
city had become the world, or, viewed from the other side, the
world had become the city " (Merivale).

Reign of Elagabalus (a.d. 218-222). — Upon the death of
Caracalla, the purple was assumed by Macrinus, the officer who
had instigated the murder of the emperor. He remained in the
East, where the severity of his disciphne caused the soldiers who
had raised him to power to revolt. The garrison at Emesa set up
as emperor Elagabalus, a beautiful boy who in that place officiated
as high priest in the temple of the Syrian sun-god, and whom the
soldiers were led to believe was the son of the murdered Caracalla.
The legions that adhered to Macrinus were quickly crushed, and
he himself was slain.

So un-Roman had the Romans become that this Oriental
priest, thus thrust forward by the Syrian legions, was at once
recognized at Rome by both Senate and people as their emperor.
He carried to Italy all his Eastern notions and manners, and there
entered upon a short reign of four years, characterized by all
those extravagances and cruel follies that are so apt to mark the
rule of an Asiatic despot. His palace was the scene of the most
profligate dissipation. He even created a senate of women
whose duty it was to attend to matters of dress, calls, amuse-
ments, and etiquette.

The praetorians, at length tiring of their priest-emperor, put
him to death, threw his body into the Tiber, and set up in his
place Alexander Severus, a kinsman of the murdered prince.

Reign of Alexander Severus (a.d. 222-235). — Severus restored
the virtues of the Age of the Antonines. His administration was
pure and energetic ; but he strove in vain to resist the corrupt
and downward tendencies of the times. He was assassinated,

THE THIRTY TYRANTS.

355

after a reign of fourteen years, by his seditious soldiers, who were
angered by his efforts to reduce them to discipline. They invested
with the imperial purple an obscure ofl&cer named Maximin, a
Thracian peasant, whose sole recommendation for this dignity was
his gigantic stature and his great strength of limbs. Rome had
now sunk to the lowest possible degradation. We may pass rap-
idly over the next fifty years of the empire.

The Thirty Tyrants (a.d. 251-268). — Maximin was followed
swiftly by (iordian, Philip, and Decius, and then came what is

TRIUMPH OF SAPOR OVER VALERIAN,

called the " Age of the Thirty Tyrants." The imperial sceptre
being held by weak emperors, there sprung up, in every part of
the empire, competitors for the throne — several rivals frequently
appearing in the field at the same time. The barbarians pressed
upon all the frontiers, and thrust themselves into all the provinces.
The empire seemed on the point of faUing to pieces.* But a

^ It was during this period that the Emperor Valerian (a.d. 253-260), in a
battle with the Persians before Edessa, in Mesopotamia, was defeated and
taken prisoner by Sapor, the Persian king. A large rock tablet (see cut
above), still to be seen near the Persian town of Shiraz, is believed to com-
roemorate the triumph of Sapor over the unfortunate emperor.

356 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

fortunate succession of five good emperors — Claudius, Aurelian,
Tacitus, Probus, and Cams (a.d. 268-284) restored for a time
the ancient boundaries and again forced together into some sort
of union the fragments of the shattered state.

The Fall of Palmyra (a.d. 273). — The most noted of the
usurpers of authority in the provinces during the period of anarchy
of which we have spoken was Odenatus, Prince of Palmyra, a city
occupying an oasis in the midst of the Syrian Desert, midway
between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates. In gratitude for
the aid he had rendered the Romans against the Parthians, the
Senate had bestowed upon him titles and honors. When the
empire began to show signs of weakness and approaching disso-
lution, Odenatus conceived the ambitious project of erecting upon
its ruins in the East a great Palmyrian kingdom. Upon his death,
his wife, Zenobia, succeeded to his authority and to his ambitions.
This famous princess claimed descent from Cleopatra, and it is
certain that in the charms of personal beauty she was the rival of
the Egyptian queen. Boldly assuming the title of " Queen of
the East," she bade defiance to the emperors of Rome. Aurelian
marched against her, and, defeating her armies in the open field,
drove them within the walls of Palmyra. After a long siege the
city was taken, and, in punishment for a second uprising, given to
the flames. The adviser of the queen, the celebrated rhetorician
Longinus, was put to death ; but Zenobia was spared, and carried
a captive to Rome. After having been led in golden chains in
the triumphal procession of Aurelian, the queen was given a
beautiful villa in the vicinity of Tibur, where, surrounded by her
children, she passed the remainder of her checkered life.^

The ruins of Palmyra are among the most interesting remains
of Roman or Grecian civilization in the East. For a long time
the site even of the city was lost to the civilized world. The
Bedouins, however, knew the spot, and told strange stories of a
ruined city with splendid temples and long colonnades far away

1 Read Ware's Zenobia and Aurelian.

REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN.

357

in the Syrian Desert. Their accounts awakened an interest in the
wonderful city, and towards the close of the seventeenth century
some explorers reached the spot. The sketches they brought
back of the ruins of the long-lost city produced almost as much
astonishment as did the discoveries afterwards of Botta and Layard
at Nineveh. Hadrian, the Antonines, and other Roman emperors
aided the ambitious Palmyrians in the architectural adornment of
their capital. The principal features of the ruins are the remains
of the great Temple of the Sun, and of the colonnade, which was
almost a mile in length. Many of the marble columns that flanked
this magnificent avenue are still erect, stretching in a long line
over the desert.

Eeig^ of Diocletian (a.d. 284-305). — The reign of Diocletian
marks an important era in Roman history. Up to this time the
imperial government had been more
or less carefully concealed under
the forms and names of the old
republic. The government now
became an unveiled and absolute
monarchy. Diocletian's reforms,
though radical, were salutary, and
infused such fresh vitality into the
frame of the dying state as to give
it a new lease of life for another term
of nearly two hundred years.

He determined to divide the nu-
merous and increasing cares of the
distracted empire, so that it might
be ruled from two centres — one in
the East and the other in the West.
In pursuance of this plan, he chose as a colleague a companion
soldier, Maximian, upon whom he conferred the title of Augustus.
After a few years, finding the cares of the co-sovereignty still too
heavy, each sovereign associated with himself an assistant, who
took the title of Caesar, and was considered the son and heir of the

DIOCLETIAN.

358 THE ROMAN EMPIRE,

emperor. There were thus two August! and two Caesars. Milan,
in Italy, became the capital and residence of Maximian ; while Nic-
omedia, in Asia Minor, became the se^t of the court of Diocletian.
The Augusti took charge of the countries near their respective capi-
tals, while the younger and more active Caesars were assigned the
government of the more distant and turbulent provinces. The
vigorous administration of the government in every quarter of the
empire was thus secured. The authority of each of the rulers was
supreme within the territory allotted hinl ; but all acknowledged
Diocletian as " the father and head of the state."

The most serious drawback to the system of government thus
instituted was the heavy expense incident to the maintenance of
four courts with their trains of officers and dependents. The taxes
became unendurable, husbandry ceased, and large masses of the
population were reduced almost to starvation.

While the changes made in the government have rendered the
name of Diocletian noted in the political history of the Roman
state, the cruel persecutions which he ordered against the Chris-
tians have made his name in an equal degree prominent in ecclesi-
astical annals ; for it was during this reign that the tenth — the
last and severest — of the persecutions of the Church took place.
By an imperial decree the churches of the Christians were ordered
to be torn down, and they themselves were outlawed. For ten
years the fugitives were hunted in forest and cave. The victims
were burned, were cast to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre,
were put to death by every torture and in every mode that inge-
nious cruelty could devise. But nothing could shake the constancy
of their faith. They courted the death that secured them, as they
firmly believed, immediate entrance upon an existence of unending
happiness. The exhibition of devotion and constancy shown by
the martyrs won multitudes to the persecuted faith.

It was during this and the various other persecutions that vexed
the Church in the second and third centuries that the Christians
sought refuge in the Catacombs, those vast subterranean galleries
and chambers under the city of Rome. Here the Christians hope-

REIGN OF DIOCLETIAN.

359

CHRIST AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
(From the Catacombs.)

fully buried their dead, arid on the walls of the chambers sketched
rude symbols of their love and faith. It was in the darkness of
these subterranean abodes that
Christian art had its beginnings.

After a prosperous reign of
twenty years, becoming weary
of the cares of state, Diocletian
abdicated the throne, and forced
or induced his colleague Max-
imian also to lay down his au-
thority on the same day. Gale-
rius and Constantius were, by
this act, advanced to the purple
and made Augusti ; and two new
associates were appointed as
Caesars. Diocletian, having en-
joyed the extreme satisfaction of seeing the imperial authority
quietly and successfully transmitted by his system, without the dic-
tation of the insolent praetorians or the interference of the turbulent
legionaries, now retired to his country-seat at Salona, on the eastern
shore of the Adriatic, and there devoted himself to rural pursuits.
It is related that, when Maximian wrote him urging him to en-
deavor, with him, to regain the power they had laid aside, he
replied : " Were you but to come to Salona and see the vegeta-
bles which I raise in my garden with my own hands, you would
no longer talk to me of empire."

Reign of Constantine the Great (a.d. 306-337) ; the Empire
becomes Christian. — Galerius and Constantius had reigned to-
gether only one year, when the latter died at York, in Britain ;
and his soldiers, disregarding the rule of succession as determined
by the system of Diocletian, proclaimed his son Constantine em-
peror. Six competitors for the throne arose in different quarters.
For eighteen years Constantine fought to gain supremacy. At the
end of that time every rival was crushed, and he was the sole ruler
of the Roman world.

360 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

Constantine was the first Christian emperor. He was con-
verted to the new religion — such is the story — by seeing in the
heavens, during one of his campaigns against his rivals, a luminous
cross with this inscription : " In this sign you will conquer." *
He made the cross the royal standard ; and the Roman legions
now for the first time marched beneath the emblem of Christi-
anity.^

By a decree issued from Milan, a.d. 313, Christianity was made
in effect the state religion ; but all other forms of worship were
tolerated. With the view of harmonizing the different sects that
had sprung up among the Christians, and to settle the controversy
between the Arians and the Athanasians respecting the nature of
Christ, — the former denied his equaUty with God the Father, —
Constantine called the first CEcumenical, or General Council of
the Church, at Nicaea, a town of Asia Minor, a.d. 325. Arianism
was denounced, and a formula of Christian faith adopted, which
is known as the Nicene Creed.

After the recognition of Christianity, the most important act of
Constantine was the selection of Byzantium, on the Bosphorus, as
the new capital of the empire. One reason which led the em-
peror to choose this site in preference to Rome was the ungra-
cious conduct towards him of the inhabitants of the latter city,
because he had abandoned the worship of the old national deities.
But there were political reasons for such a change. Through the
Eastern conquests of Rome, the centre of the population, wealth,
and culture of the empire had ^shifted eastward. The West —
Gaul, Britain, Spain — was rude and barbarous ; the East —
Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor — was the abode of ancient civilizations
from which Rome was proud to trace her origin. Constantine
was not the first to entertain the idea of seeking in the East a

^ In Latin, In hoc signo vinces.

2 The new standard was called the Labarum (from the Celtic lavar, mean-
ing command). It consisted of a banner inscribed with the Greek letters XP,
the first being a symbol of the Cross, and both forming a monogram of the
word Christ. The letters are the initials of the Greek Christos.

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REIGN OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 361

new centre for the Roman world. The ItaUans were inflamed
against the first Caesar by the report that he intended to restore
Ihum, the cradle of the Roman race, and make that the capital
of the empire.

Constantine organized at Byzantium a new Senate, while that at
Rome sank to the obscure position of the council of a provincial
municipality. Multitudes eagerly thronged to the new capital,
and almost in a night the little colony grew into an imperial city.
In honor of the emperor its name was changed to Constantinople,
the " City of Constantine." Hereafter the eyes of the world were
directed towards the Bosphorus instead of the Tiber.

To aid in the administration of the government, Constantine
laid out the empire into four great divisions, called prefectures
(see map), which were subdivided into thirteen dioceses, and
these again into one hundred and sixteen provinces.

The character of Constantine has been greatly eulogized by
Christian writers, while Pagan historians very naturally painted it
in dark colors. It is probable that he embraced Christianity, not
entirely from conviction, but partly from political motives. As
the historian Hodgkin puts it, " He was half convinced of the
truth of Christianity, and wholly convinced of the policy of em-
bracing it." If his course was dictated by considerations of
policy, events justified his forecast ; for it was the enthusiasm of
his Christian legions, v^rought to an intense fervor by the sight
of the new emblem, that gave to Constantine his victory over
his last rival on the field of Adrianople.

In any event, Constantine's religion was a strange mixture of the
old and the new faith : on his medals the Christian cross is held
by the pagan deity Victory. In his domestic relations he was
tyrannical and cruel. He put to death his son Crispus for no
better reason, it is believed, than that he was jealous of his rising
fame ; his wife he ordered to be smothered in the bath ; he killed
his sister, and drove his mother to death with grief and despair.
He died in the thirty-first year of his reign, leaving his kingdom
to his three sons, Constans, Constantius, and Constantine.

362 . THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

Reign of Julian the Apostate (a.d. 361-363). — The parcel-
ling out of the empire by Constantine among his sons led to
strife and wars, which, at the end of sixteen years, left Constan-
tius master of the whole. He reigned as sole emperor for about
eight years, engaged in ceaseless warfare with German tribes in
the West and with the Persians^ in the East. Constantius was
followed by his cousin Julian, who was killed while in pursuit of
the troops of Sapor, king of the Persians (a.d. 363).

Julian is called the Apostate because he abandoned Christianity
and labored to restore the Pagan faith. In his persecution of
the Christians, however, he could not resort to the old means —
" the sword, the fire, the Hons " ; for, under the softening influ-
ences of the very faith he sought to extirpate, the Roman world
had already learned a gentleness and humanity that rendered
impossible the renewal of the Neronian and Diocletian persecu-
tions. Julian's weapons were sophistry and ridicule, in the use
of which he was a master. To degrade the Christians, and place
them at a disadvantage in controversy, he excluded them from
the schools of logic and rhetoric.

Furthermore, to cast discredit upon the predictions of the
Scriptures, Julian determined to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem,
which the Christians contended could not be restored because of
the prophecies against it. He actually began excavations, but his
workmen were driven in great panic from the spot by terrific
explosions and bursts of flame. The Christians regarded the
occurrence as miraculous ; and Juhan himself, it is cerfain, was so
dismayed by it that he desisted from the undertaking.^

^ The great Parthian empire, which had been such a formidable antagonist
of Rome, was, after an existence of five centuries, overthrown by a revolt of
the Persians (a.d. 226), and the New Persian or Sassanian monarchy estab-
lished. This empire lasted till the country was overrun by the Saracens in the
seventh century a.d.

^ The explosions which so terrified the workmen of Julian are supposed to
have been caused by accumulations of gases — similar to those that so fre-
quently occasion accidents in mines — in the subterranean chambers of the
Temple foundations.

MOVEMENTS OF THE BARBARIANS. 363

It was in vain that the apostate emperor labored to uproot the
new faith ; for the purity of its teachings, the universal and eternal
character of its moral precepts, had given it a name to live.
Equally in vain were his efforts to restore the worship of the old
Grecian and Roman divinities. Polytheism was a transitional form
of religious belief which the world had now outgrown : great Pan
was dead.

The disabilities under which Julian had placed the Christians
were removed by his successor Jovian (a.d. 363-364), and the
Christian worship was re-established.

Valentinian and Valens. — Upon the death of Jovian, Valen-
tinian, the commander of the imperial guard, was elected emperor
by a council of the generals of the army and the ministers of the
court. He appointed his brother Valens as his associate in office,
and assigned to him the Eastern provinces, while reserving for
himself the Western. He set up his own court at Milan, while his
brother established his residence at Constantinople. "

The Movements of the Barbarians. — The reigns of Valen-
tinian and Valens were signalized by threatening movements of
the barbarian tribes, that now, almost at the same moment, began
to press with redoubled energy against all the barriers of the em-
pire. The Alemanni (Germans) crossed the Rhine — sometimes
swarming over the river on the winter's ice — and, before pursuit
could be made, escaped with their booty into the depths of the
German forests. The Saxons, pirates of the northern seas, who
issued from the mouth of the Elbe, ravaged the coasts of Gaul and
Britain, even pushing their light skiffs far up the rivers and creeks
of those countries, and carrying spoils from the inland cities. In
Britain, the Picts broke through the Hadrian Wall, and wrested
almost the entire island from the hands of the Romans. In Africa,
the Moorish and other tribes, issuing from the ravines of the Atlas
Mountains and swarrriing from the deserts of the south, threatened
to obliterate the last trace of Roman civilization occupying the
narrow belt of fertile territory skirting the sea.

The barbarian tide of invasion seemed thus on the point of

364 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

overwhelming the empire in the West ; but for twelve years Val-
entinian defended with signal ability and energy not only his own
territories, but aided with arms and counsel his weaker brother
Valens in the defence of his. Upon the death of Valentinian, his
son Gratian succeeded to his authority (a.d. 375).

The Goths cross the Danube. — The year following the death
of Valentinian, an event of the greatest importance occurred in
the East. The Visigoths (Western Goths) dwelling north of the
Lower Danube, who had often in hostile bands crossed that river
to war against the Roman emperors, now appeared as suppliants
in vast multitudes upon its banks. They said that a terrible race,
whom they were powerless to withstand, had invaded their terri-
tories, and spared neither their homes nor their lives. They
begged permission of the Romans to cross the river and settle in
Thrace, and promised, should this request be granted, ever to
remain the grateful and firm allies of the Roman state.

Valens consented to grant their petition on condition that they
should surrender their arms, give up their children as hostages,
and all be baptized in the Christian faith.' Their terror ana de-
spair led them to assent to these conditions. So the entire nation,
numbering 1,000,000 souls, — counting men, women, and chil-
dren, — were allowed to cross the river. Several days and nights
were consumed in the transport of the vast multitudes. The
writers of the times liken the passage to that of the Hellespont
by the hosts of Xerxes.

The enemy that had so terrified the Goths were the Huns, a
monstrous race of fierce nomadic horsemen, that two centuries
and more before the Christian era were roving the deserts north of
the Great Wall of China.^ Migrating from that region, they moved
slowly to the West, across the great plains of Central Asia, and,

* It is somewhat doubtful whether this last condition was really a part of
the agreement.

2 A great rampart extending for about fifteen hundred miles along the
northern frontier of China. It was built by the Chinese towards the end of the
third century B.C. as a barrier against the forays of the Huns.

THE GOTHS CROSS THE DANUBE. 365

after wandering several centuries, appeared in Europe. They
belonged to a different race (the Turanian) from all the other
European tribes with which we have been so far concerned.
Their features were hideous, their noses being flattened, and their
cheeks gashed, to render their appearance more frightful as well
as to prevent the growth of a beard. Even the barbarous Goths
called them " barbarians."

Scarcely had the fugitive Visigoths been received within the
limits of the empire before a large company of their kinsmen, the
Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths), also driven from their homes by
the same terrible Huns, crowded to the banks of the Danube, and
pleaded that they might be allowed, as their countrymen had
been, to place the river between themselves and their dreaded
enemies. But Valens, becoming alarmed at the presence of so
many barbarians within his dominions, refused their request ;
whereupon they, dreading the fierce and implacable foe behind
more than the wrath of the Roman emperor in front, crossed the
river- with arms in their hands.

It now came to light that the cupidity of the Roman officials
had prevented the carrying out of the stipulations of the agreement
between the emperor and the Visigoths respecting the relinquish-
ment of their arms. The barbarians had bribed those intrusted
with the duty of transporting them across the river, and purchased
the privilege of retaining their weapons. The persons, too,
detailed to provide the multitude with food till they could be
assigned lands, traded on the hunger of their wards, and doled
out the vilest provisions at the most extortionate prices. (We
seem here to be listening to a recital of the unscrupulous conduct
of Indian agents of the United St.tes frontie:s.

As was natural, the injured nation rose in indignant revolt.
Joining their kinsmen that were just now forcing the passage of
the Danube, they commenced, under the lead of the great Friti-
gern, to overrun and ravage the Danubian provinces. Valens
despatched swift messengers to Gratian in the West, asking for
assistance against the foe he had so unfortunately admitted within

S66 THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

the limits of the empire. Meanwhile, he rallied all his forceSj
and, without awaiting the arrival of the Western legions, risked a
battle with the barbarians near Adrianople. The Roman army
was almost annihilated. Valens himself, being wounded, sought
refuge in the cabin of a peasant ; but the building was fired by
the savages, and the emperor was burned alive (a.d. 378). The
Goths now rapidly overran Thrace, Macedon, and Thessaly,
ravaging the country to the very walls of Constantinople.

Theodosius the Great (a.d. 379-395). — Gratian was hurrying
to the help of his colleague Valens, w^hen news of his defeat and
death at the hands of the barbarians was brought to him, and he
at once appointed as his associate Theodosius, known afterwards
as the Great, and intrusted him with the government of the
Eastern provinces. Theodosius, by wise and vigorous measures,
quickly reduced the Goths to submission. Vast multitudes of the
Visigoths were settled upon the waste lands of Thrace, while the
Ostrogoths were scattered in various colonies in different regions
of Asia Minor. The Goths became allies of the Emperor of the
East, and more than 40,000 of these warlike barbarians, who
were destined to be the subverters of the empire, were enlisted
in the imperial legions.

While Theodosius was thus composing the East, the West,
through the jealous rivalries of different competitors for the con-
trol of the government, had fallen into great disorder. Theodosius
twice interposed to right affairs, and then took the government
into his own hands. For four months he ruled as sole monarch
of the empire.

Final Division of the Empire (a.d. 395). — The Roman world
was now united for the last time under a single master. Just
before his death, Theodosius divided the empire between his two
sons, Arcadius and Honorius, assigning the former, who was only
eighteen years of age, the government of the East, and giving the
latter, a mere child of eleven, the sovereignty of the West. This
was the final partition of the Roman empire — the issue of that
growing tendency, which we have observed in its immoderately

THE EASTERN EMPIRE. 367

extended dominions, to break apart. The separate histories of
the East and the West now begin.

The Eastern Empire. — The story of the fortunes of the Em-
pire in the East need not detain us long at this point of our
history. This monarchy lasted over a thousand years — from
the accession to power of Arcadius, a.d. 395, to the capture of
Constantinople by the Turks, a.d. 1453. It will thus be seen
that the greater part of its history belongs to the mediaeval period.
Up to the time of the overthrow of the Empire in the West, the
sovereigns of the East were engaged almost incessantly in sup-
pressing uprisings of their Gothic allies or mercenaries, or in
repelling invasions of the Huns and the Vandals. Frequently dur-
ing this period, in order to save their own territories, the Eastern
emperors, by dishonorable inducements, persuaded the barbarians
to direct their ravaging expeditions against the provinces of the
West.

Last Days of the Empire in the West.

First Invasion of Italy by Alaric. — Only a few years had
elapsed after the death of the great Theodosius, before the bar-
barians were trooping in vast hordes through all the regions of the
West. First, from Thrace and Moesia came the Visigoths, led by
the great Alaric. They poured through the Pass of Thermopylae,
and devastated almost the entire peninsula of Greece ; but, being
driven from that country by Stilicho, the renowned Vandal gen-
eral ^ of Honorius, they crossed the Julian Alps, and spread terror
throughout all Italy. Stilicho followed the barbarians cautiously,
and, attacking them at a favorable moment, inflicted a terrible and
double defeat upon them at Pollentia and Verona (a.d. 402-403).
The captured camp was found filled with the spoils of Thebes,
Corinth, and Sparta. Gathering the remnants of his shattered

^ Hodgkin makes the following suggestive comparison : " Stilicho [and
others like him] were the prototypes of the German and English officers who
in our own day have reorganized the armies or commanded the fleets of the
Sultan, and led the expeditions gf the Khedive,"

368 LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST.

army, Alaric forced his way with difficulty through the defiles of
the Alps, and escaped.

Last Triuniph at Rome (a.d. 404). — A terrible danger had
been averted. All Italy burst forth in expressions of gratitude and
joy. The days of the Cimbri and Teutones were recalled, and the
name of Stillcho was pronounced with that of Marius. A mag-
nificent triumph at Rome celebrated the victory and the deliver-
ance. The youthful Honorius and his faithful general Stilicho rode
side by side in the imperial chariot. It was the last triumph that
Rome ever saw. Three hundred times — such is asserted to be
the number — the Imperial City had witnessed the triumphal pro-
cession of her victorious generals, celebrating conquests in all
quarters of the world.

Last Gladiatorial Combat of the Amphitheatre. — The same
year that marks the last military triumph at Rome also signalizes
the last gladiatorial combat in the Roman amphitheatre. It is to
Christianity that the credit of the suppression of the inhuman
exhibitions of the amphitheatre is entirely, or almost entirely, due.
The Pagan philosophers usually regarded them with indifference,
often with favor. Thus Pliny commends a friend for giving a glad-
iatorial entertainment at the funeral of his wife. And when the
Pagan moralists did condemn the spectacles, it was rather for other
reasons than that they regarded them as inhuman and absolutely
contrary to the rules of ethics. They were defended on the ground
that they fostered a martial spirit among the people and inured
the soldier to the sights of the battle-field. Hence gladiatorial
games were actually exhibited to the legions before they set out
on their campaigns. Indeed, all classes appear to have viewed
the matter in much the same light, and with exacdy the game
absence of moral disapprobation, that we ourselves regard the
slaughter of animals for food.

» But the Christian fathers denounced the combats as absolutely
immoral, and labored in every possible way to create a public
opinion against them. The members of their own body who
attended the spectacles were excommunicated. At length, in

THE INVASION OF ITALY. 369

A.D. 325, the first imperial edict against them was issued by
Constantine. This decree appears to have been very Uttle re-
garded ; nevertheless, from this time fonvard the exhibitions were
under something of a ban, until their final abolition was brought
about by an incident of the games that closed the triumph
of Honorius. In the midst of the exhibition a Christian monk,
named Telemachus, descending into the arena, rushed between
the combatants, but was instantly killed by a shower of missiles
thrown by the people, who were angered by this interruption of
their sports. But the people soon repented of their act; and
Honorius himself, who was present, was moved by the scene.
Christianity had awakened the conscience and touched the heart
of Rome. The martyrdom of the monk led to an imperial edict
"which abolished forever the human sacrifices of the amphi-
theatre."

Invasion of Italy by Various German Tribes. — While Italy
was celebrating her triumph over the Goths, another and more
formidable invasion was preparing in the north. The tribes be-
yond the Rhine — the Vandals, the Suevi, the Burgundians, and
other peoples — driven onward by some unknown cause, poured
in impetuous streams from the forests and morasses of Germany,
and bursting the barriers of the Alps, overspread the devoted
plains of Italy. The alarm caused by them among the Italians
was even greater than that inspired by the Gothic invasion ; for
Alaric was a Christian, while Radagaisus, the leader of the new
hordes, was a superstitious savage, who paid worship to gods that
required the bloody sacrifice of captive enemies.

By such efforts as Rome put forth in the younger and more
vigorous days of the repubHc, when Hannibal was at her gates, an
army was now equipped and placed under the command of Stilicho.
Meanwhib the barbarians had advanced as far as Florence, and
were now Lcsieging that place. Stilicho here surrounded the vast
host — variously estimated from 200,000 to 400,000 men — and
starved them into a surrender. Their chief, Radagaisus, was put

370 LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST.

to death, and great numbers of the barbarians that the sword and
famine had spared were sold as slaves (a.d. 406).

The Ransom of Rome (a.d. 409). — Shortly after the victory
of Stilicho over the German barbarians, he came under the suspi-
cion of the weak and jealous Honorius, and was executed. Thus
fell the great general whose sword and counsel had twice saved
Rome from the barbarians, and who might again have averted
similar dangers that were now at hand. Listening to the rash
counsels of his unworthy advisers, Honorius provoked to revolt
the 30,000 Gothic mercenaries in the Roman legions by a mas-
sacre of their wives and children, who were held as hostages in
the different cities of Italy. The Goths beyond the Alps joined
with their kinsmen to avenge the perfidious act. Alaric again
crossed the mountains, and pillaging the cities in his way, led his
hosts to the very gates of Rome. Not since the time of the
dread Hannibal (see j). 271) — more than six hundred years
before — had Rome been insulted by the presence of a foreign
foe beneath her walls.

The barbarians by their vast number were enabled to completely
surround the city, and thus cut it off from its supplies of food.
Famine soon forced the Romans to sue for terms of -urrender.
The ambassadors of the Senate, when they came before Alaric,
began, in lofty and unbecoming language, to warn him not to
render the Romans desperate by hard or dishonorable terms:
their fury when driven to despair, they represented, was terrible,
and their number enormous. " The thicker the grass, the easier
to mow it," was Alaric's derisive reply. The barbarian chieftain
at length named the ransom that he would accept and spare the
city : " All the gold and silver in the city, whether it were the
property of individuals or of the state ; all the rich and precious
movables ; and all the slaves that could prove their title to the
name of barbarian." The amazed commissioners, in deprecating
tones, asked, " If such, O king, are your demands, what do you
intend to leave us?" "Your lives," responded the conqueror.

The ransom was afterwards considerably modified and reduced.

THE SACKING OF ROME. 371

It was fixed at " 5000 pounds of gold, 30,000 of silver, 4000
silken robes, 3000 pieces of scarlet cloth, and 3000 pounds ol
pepper." The last-named article was much used in Roman cook-
ery, and was very expensive, being imported from India. Meri-
vale, in contrasting the condition of Rome at this time with her
ancient wealth and grandeur, estimates that the gilding of the roof
of the Capitoline temple far exceeded the entire ransom, and that
it was four hundred times less than that (five milHards of francs)
demanded of France by the Prussians in 18 71. Small as it com-
paratively was, the Romans were able to raise it, only by the most
extraordinary measures. The images of the gods were first
stripped of their ornaments of gold and precious stones, and
finally the statues themselves were melted down.

Sack of Rome by Alaric (a.d. 410). — Upon retiring from
Rome, Alaric established his camp in Etruria. Here he was
joined by great numbers of fugitive slaves, and by fresh accessions
of barbarians from beyond the Alps. The Gallic king now de-
manded for his followers lands of Honorius, who, with his court,
was safe behind the marshes of Ravenna ; but the emperor treated
all the proposals of the barbarian with foolish insolence. Rome
paid the penalty. Alaric turned upon the devoted city, deter-
mined upon its sack and plunder. The barbarians broke into
the capital by night, " and the inhabitants were awakened by the
tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet." Ftecisely eight hun-
dred years had passed since its sack by the Gauls. During that
time the Imperial City had carried its victorious standards over
three continents, and had gathered within the temples of its gods
and the palaces of its nobles the plunder of the world. Now
It was given over for a spoil to the fierce tribes from beyond the
Danube.

Alaric commanded his soldiers to respect the lives of the peo-
ple, and to leave untouched the treasures of the Christian temples ;
but the wealth of the citizens he encouraged them to make their
own. For six days and nights the rough barbarians trooped
through the streets of the city on their mission of pillage. Their

372 LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST.

wagons were heaped with the costly furniture, the rich plate, and
the silken garments stripped from the palaces of the wealthy
patricians and the temples of the gods. Amidst the license of
the sack, the barbarian instincts of the robbers broke loose from
all restraint, and the city was everywhere wet with blood, while
the nights were lighted with burning buildings.

Effects of the Disaster upon Paganism. — The overwhelming
disaster that had befallen the Imperial City produced a profound
impression upon both Pagans and Christians throughout the Ro-
man world. The former asserted that these unutterable calamities
had fallen upon the Roman state because of the abandonment by
the people of the worship of the gods of their forefathers, under
whose protection and favor Rome had become the mistress of the
world. The Christians, on the other hand, saw in the fall of
the Eternal City the fulfilment of the prophecies against the
Babylon of the Apocalypse. The latter interpretation of the
appalling calamity gained credit amidst the panic and despair of
the times. The temples of the once popular deities were deserted
by their worshippers, who had lost faith in gods that could neither
save themselves nor protect their shrines from spoliation. " Hence-
forth," says Merivale, " the power of paganism was entirely broken,
and the indications which occasionally meet us of its continued
existence are rare and trifling. Christianity stepped into its de-
serted inheritance. The Christians occupied the temples, trans-
forming them into churches."

The Death of Alaric. — After withdrawing his warriors from
Rome, Alaric led them southward. As they moved slowly on,
they piled still higher the wagons of their long trains with the rich
spoils of the cities and villas of Campania and other districts of
Southern Italy. In the villas of the Roman nobles the rough bar-
barians spread rare banquets from the stores of their well-filled
cellars, and drank from jewelled cups the famed Falernian wine.

Alaric led his soldiers to the extreme southern point of Italy,
intending to cross the Straits of Messina into Sicily, and, afte*-
subduing that island, to carry his conquests into the provinces of

SEIZURE OF THE WESTERN PROVINCES. 373

Africa. His designs were frustrated by his death, which occurred
A.D. 410. With religious care his followers secured the body of
their hero against molestation by his enemies. The little river
Busentinus, in Northern Bruttium, was turned from its course with
great labor, and in the bed of the stream was constructed a tomb,
in which was placed the body of the king, with his jewels and tro-
phies. The river was then restored to its old channel, and, that
the exact spot might never be known, the prisoners who had been
forced to do the work were all put to death.

The Barbarians seize the Western Provinces. — We must now
turn our eyes from Rome and Italy to observe the movement of
events in the provinces. In his efforts to defend Italy, Stilicho
had withdrawn the last legion from Britain, and had drained
the camps and fortresses of Gaul. The Hadrian Wall was left
unmanned ; the passages of the Rhine were left unguarded ; and
the agitated multitudes of barbarians beyond these defences were
free to pour their innumerable hosts into all the fair provinces of
the empire. Hordes of Suevi, Alani, Vandals, and Burgundians
overspread all the plains and valleys of Gaul. The Vandals
pushed on into the South of Spain, and there occupied a large
tract of country, which, in its present name of Andalusia, preserves
the memory of its barbarian settlers. From these regions they
crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, overran the Roman provinces of
Northern Africa, captured Carthage (a.d. 439), and made that
city the seat of the dread empire of the Vandals. The Goths,
with Italy pillaged, recrossed the Alps, and- establishing their
camps in the south of Gaul and the north of Spain, set up in
those regions what is known as the Kingdom of the Visigoths.

In Britain, upon the withdrawal of the Roman legions, the Picts
breaking over the wall of Hadrian, descended upon and pillaged
the cities of the South. The half- Romanized and effeminate pro-
vincials — no match for their hardy kinsmen who had never bowed
their necks to the yoke of Rome — were driven to despair by the
ravages of their relentless enemies, and, in their helplessness, in-
vited to their aid the Angles and Saxons from the shores of the

374 LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST.

North Sea. These people came in their rude boats, drove back
the invaders, and, being pleased with the soil and climate of the
island, took possession of the country for themselves, and became
the ancestors of the English people.

Invasion of the Huns: Battle of Chalons (a.d. 451). — The
barbarians that were thus overrunning and parcelling out the inher-
itance of the dying empire were now, in turn, pressed upon and
terrified by a foe more hideous and dreadful in their eyes than
were they in the sight of the peoples among whom they had thrust
themselves. These were the non-Aryan Huns, of whom we have
already caught a glimpse as they drove the panic-stricken Goths
across the Danube. At this time their leader was Attila, whom the
affrighted inhabitants of Europe called the "Scourge of God."
It was declared that the grass never grew again where once the
hoof of Attila's horse had trod.

Attila defeated the armies of the Eastern emperor, and exacted
tribute from the court of Constantinople. Finally he turned west-
ward, and, at the head of a host numbering, it is asserted,
700,000 warriors, crossed the Rhine into Gaul, purposing first to
ravage that province, and then to traverse Italy with fire and
sword, in order to destroy the last vestige of the Roman power.

The Romans and their Gothic conquerors laid aside their ani-
mosities, and made common cause against a common enemy.
The Visigoths were rallied by their king, Theodoric ; the Italians,
the Franks, the Burgundians, flocked to the standard of the Roman
general Aetius. Attila drew up his mighty hosts upon the plain
of Chalons, in the north of Gaul, and there awaited the onset of
the Romans and their allies. The conflict was long and terrible.
Theodoric was slain ; but at last fortune turned against the bar-
barians. The loss of the Huns is variously estimated at from
100,000 to 300,000 warriors. Attila succeeded in escaping from
the field, and retreated with his shattered hosts across the Rhine
(A.D. 451).

This great victory is placed among the significant events of
history; for it decided that the Christian Germanic races, and

DEATH OF ATTILA. 376

not the pagan Scythic Huns, should inherit the dominions of the
expiring Roman Empire, and control the destinies of Europe.

The Death of Attila. — The year after his defeat at Chalons,
Attila again crossed the Alps, and burned or plundered all the
important cities of Northern Italy. The Veneti fled for safety to
the morasses at the head of the Adriatic (a.d, 452). Upon the
islets where they built their rude dwellings, there grew up in time
the city of Venice, the " eldest daughter of the Roman Empire,"
the " Carthage of the Middle Ages."

The conqueror threatened Rome ; but Leo the Great, bishop
of the capital, went with an embassy to the camp of Attila, and
pleaded for the city. He recalled to the mind of Attila the
fact that death had overtaken the impious Alaric soon after he had
given the Imperial City to be sacked, and warned him not to call
down upon himself the like judgment of heaven. To these ad-
monitions of the Christian bishop was added the persuasion of
a golden bribe from the Emperor Valentinian ; and Attila was
induced to spare Southern Italy, and to lead his warriors back
beyond the Alps. Shortly after he had crossed the Danube, he
died 'suddenly in his camp, and like Alaric was buried secretly, —
and " no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." His fol-
lowers gradually withdrew from Europe into the wilds of their
native Scythia, or were absorbed by the peoples they had con-
quered.'

1 There is much uncertainty respecting the part which the warriors of Attila
may have taken in the formation of the later Hungarian state in Europe.
That appears to have owed its origin to another invading band of the same
people, that entered Europe several centuries later. " It is at least certain,"
says Creasy, " that the Magyars of Arpad, who are the immediate ancestors of
the bulk of the modern Hungarians, and who conquered the country which
bears the name of Hungary in A.D. 889, were of the same stock of mankind as
the Huns of Attila. if they did not belong to the same subdivision of that stock.
Nor is there any improbability in the tradition that after Attila's death many
of his warriors remained in Hungary, and that their descendants afterwards
joined the Huns of Arpad in their career of conquest. It is certain that Attila
made Hungary the seat of his empire." — Decisive Baiiles, p. 157.

376 LA:iT DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST.

Sack of Rome by the Vandals (a.d. 455). — Rome had been
saved a visitation from the spoiler of the North, but a new de-
struction was about to burst upon it by way of the sea from the
South. Africa sent out another enemy whose greed for plunder
proved more fatal to Rome than the eternal hate of Hannibal. The
kings of the Vandal Empire in Northern Africa had acquired as
perfect a supremacy in the Western Mediterranean as Carthage
ever enjoyed in the days of her commercial pride. Vandal cor-
sairs swept the seas and harassed the coasts of Sicily and Italy,
and even plundered the maritime towns of the Eastern provinces.
In the year 455 a Vandal fleet, led by the dread Geiseric (Gen-
seric), sailed up the Tiber.

These barbarians had been exhorted by the Roman empress
Eudoxia to come and avenge the murder of her husband Valen-
tinian and her forced alliance with a senator named Maximus,
who, being invested with the purple, had forced the widowed
queen to accept the hand stained, as many believed, with the
blood of her own husband.

Panic seized the people ; for the name Vandal was pronounced
with terror throughout the world. Again the great Leo, who had
once before saved his flock from the fury of an Attila, went forth
to intercede in the name of Christ for the Imperial City. Geiseric
granted to the pious bishop the lives of the citizens, but said that
the plunder of the capital belonged to his warriors. For fourteen
days and nights the city was given over to the ruthless barbarians.
The ships of the Vandals, which almost hid with their number the
waters of the Tiber, were piled, as had been the wagons of the
Goths before them, with the rich and weighty spoils of the capital.
Palaces were stripped of their ornaments and furniture, and the
walls of the temples denuded of their statues and of the trophies
of a hundred Roman victories. From the Capitoline sanctuary
were borne off" the golden candlestick and other sacred articles
that Titus had stolen from the Temple at Jerusalem.

The greed of the barbarians was sated at last, and they
were ready to withdraw. The Vandal fleet sailed for Car-

FALL OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST. 377

thage/ bearing, besides the plunder of the city, more than 30,000
of the inhabitants as slaves. Carthage, through her own barba-
rian conquerors, was at last avenged upon her hated rival. The
mournful presentiment of Scipio had fallen true (see p. 281). The
cruel fate of Carthage might have been read again in the pillaged
city that the Vandals left behind them.

Fall of the Roman Empire in the West (a.d. 476). — Only the
shadow of the Empire in the West now remained. All the prov-
inces — Illyricum, Gaul, Britain, Spain, and Africa — were in the
hands of the Goths, the Vandals, the Franks, the Burgundians, the
Angles and Saxons, and various other intruding tribes. Italy, as
well as Rome herself, had become again and again the spoil of the
insatiable barbarians. The story of the twenty years following the
sack of the capital by Geiseric affords only a repetition of the
events we have been narrating. During these years several pup-
pet emperors were set up by the different leaders of the invading
tribes. A final seditious movement placed upon the shadow-
throne a child of six years, son of Orestes, the leading spirit of the
new revolution.

By what has been called a freak of fortune, this boy-sovereign
bore the name of Romulus Augustus, thus uniting in the name of
the last Roman Emperor of the West the names of the founder of
Rome and of the estabUsher of the empire. Not so much on ac-
count of his youth as from contempt excited by the imperial farce
he was forced to play, this emperor became known as Augustulus
— " the little Augustus." He reigned only one year, when Odo-
vaker (Odoacer), the leader of the Heruli — a small but formid-
able German tribe, all of whom claimed royal descent — having
demanded one-third of the lands of Italy, to divide among his fol-
lowers for services rendered the empire, and having been refused,

1 The fleet was overtaken by a storm and suffered some damage, but the
most precious of the relics it bore escaped harm. " The golden candlestick
reached the African capital, was recovered a century later, and lodged in Con-
stantinople by Justinian, and by him replaced, from superstitious motives, in
Jerusalem. From that time its history is lost." — Merivale.

378 LAST DAYS OF THE EMPIRE IN THE WEST.

put Orestes to death, and dethroned the child-emperor. His life
was spared, and his friends were permitted to take him into
retirement in the villa of LucuUus, in Campania.

The Roman Senate now sent an embassy to Constantinople,
with the royal vestments and the insignia of the imperial ofifice, to
represent to the Emperor Zeno that the West was willing to give
up its claims to an emperor of its own, and to request that the
German chief, with the title of " Patrician," might rule Italy as
his viceroy. This was granted ; and Italy now became in effect
a province of the Empire in the East (a.d. 476). The Roman
Empire in the West had come to an end, after an existence from
the founding of Rome of 1229 years.

iiMliJjMliiSK

II I '11 hi I 111 V\w\

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Ill'"

SARCOPHAGUS OF CORNELIUS SCIPIO BARBATUS.
(Consul 298 B.C.)

ROMAN EMPEkORS.

S79

ROMAN EMPERORS FROM COMMODUS TO ROMULUS
AUGUSTUS.

(a.d. 180-476.)

A.D.

Commodus 180-192

Pertinax 193

Didius Tulianus 193

Septimius Severus .... 193-21 1

^ Caracalla 211-217

( Geta 211-212

Macrinus 217-218

Elagabalus 218-222

Alexander Severus .... 222-235

Maximin 235-238

Gordian III 238-244

Philip 244-249

Decius 249-251

Period of the Thirty Tyrants 251-268

Claudius 268-270

Aurelian 270-275

Tacitus 275-276

Probus 276-282

Carus 282-283

< Carinus 283-284

(Numerian 283-284

A.D.

( Diocletian 284-305

( Maximian .-286-305

K Constantius 1 305-306

^ Galerius 305-311

Constantine the Great . . . 306-337
Reigns as sole ruler . . . 323-337

Constantine II 337-34°

Constans 1 337-35°

Constantius II 337-361

Reigns as sole ruler . . , 350-361
Julian the Apostate . . . 361-363

Jovian 363-364

( Valentinian 1 364-375

\ Valens (in the East) . . 364-378

Gratian 375-383

Maximus 383-388

Valentinian II 375-392

Eugenius 392-394

Theodosius the Great . . , 379-395
Reigns as sole emperor . 394-395

FINAL PARTITION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
(A.D. 395.)

EMPERORS IN THE EAST.
(From A.D. 395 to Fall of Rome.)

A.D.

Arcadius 395-4o8

Theodosius II 408-450

M«\cian 450-457

Leo 1 457-474

Zeno 474-491

EMPERORS IN THE WEST.

A.D.

Honorius 395-423

Valentinian III 425-455

Maximus 455

Avitus 455-456

Count Ricimer creates and

deposes emperors . . . 456-472
Romulus Augustus .... 475-476

J580 ARCHITECTURE.

CHAPTER X.

ARCHITECTURE, LITERATURE, LAW, AND SOCIAL LIFE
AMONG THE ROMANS.

Architecture.

Introductory. — We purpose in the present section to say
something further respecting the great architectural works of the
ancient Romans, any extended description of which before this
time would have broken the continuity of our narrative. An
examination of these as they stood before time and violence laid
defacing hands upon them, or as they appear now after the decay
and spoliation of many centuries, will tend to render more real,
and to impress more deeply upon our minds, the story we have
been following (see Frontispiece).

Greek Origin of Eoman Architecture : the Arch. — The
aixhitecture of the Romans was, in the main, an imitation of
Greek models. But the Romans were not mere servile imitators.
They not only modified the architectural forms they borrowed,
but they gave their structures a distinct character by the prominent
use of the arch, which the Greek and Oriental builders seldom
employed, though they were acquainted with its properties. By
means of it the Roman builders vaulted the roofs of the largest
buildings, carried stupendous aqueducts across the deepest val-
leys, and spanned the broadest streams with bridges that have
resisted all the assaults of time and flood to the present day.

Sacred Edifices. — The temples of the Romans were in general
so like those of the Greeks that we need not here take time and
space to enter into a particular description of them.* Mention,

1 The most celebrated of Roman temples was the Capitoline, which crowned
the Capitoline Hill at Rome. At the close of the Punic Wars the roof of the
central portion of the building was covered with gilded tiles at an almost
fabulous expense, — ^20,000,000 according to some authorities. The brazen

THEATRES AND AMPHITHEATRES. 381

however, should be made of their circular vaulted temples, as this
was a style of building almost exclusively Italian. The best repre-
sentative of this style of sacred edifices is the Pantheon ^ at Rome,
which has come down to our own times in a state of wonderful
preservation. This structure is about 140 feet in diameter. The
great concrete dome which vaults the building is one of the
boldest pieces of masonry executed by the master-builders of the
world. The temple is fronted by a splendid portico, forming a
thick grove of columns, through which entrance is given to the
shrine The doors were of bronze, and still remain in place. It
was built about 25 B.C. by the consul M. Agrippa, son-in-law of
Augustus, and was consecrated to Jupiter the Avenger. The
edifice is now a Christian sanctuary, being known as The Church
of All the Saints.

Circuses, Theatres, and Amphitheatres. — The circuses of the
Romans were what we should call race-courses. There were
several at Rome, the most celebrated being the Circus Maximus,
which was first laid out in the time of the Tarquins, and after-
wards enlarged as the population of the capital increased, until
finally, at the time of Constantine, which emperor made the last
extension, it was capable of holding probably two or three hun-
dred thousand spectators.^ It was oblong in shape, being about
1800 feet long and 600 feet wide. From the course, or track, the
seats rose in tiers the same as in a theatre. From the uppermost
row of seats rose high buildings with several stories of balconies
like the boxes overhanging the modern stage. The sloping sides
of the valley were taken advantage of in the formation of the
seats. The only remaining trace of this stupendous structure is
the terraced appearance of the low encircHng hills.

doors of the temple were also adorned with solid plates of gold. The interior
decorations were of marble and silver. The walls were crowded with the
trophies of war. We have already learned of the fate of the treasures of the
sanctuary at the hands of the barbarian Goths and Vandals (see pp. 371, 376).

*From two Greek words, pan, all, and t/ieiott, divine (or theos, a god).

2 Authorities differ, ranging from 150,000 to 380,000. Pliny says 250,000.

m

ARCHITECTURE.

RUINS OF THEATRE AT ASPENDOS.

The Romans borrowed the plan of their theatres from the
Greeks, The form was that of a semicircle, with rising tiers of

seats. The Greeks, in the
construction of their thea-
tres, usually took advan-
tage of some hillside ; but
the Romans, who seemed
to scorn the idea of saving
labor, or of asking nature
to lend aid in any work,
when they set themselves
to theatre-building, erected
the entire structure upon level ground, raising a great support-
ing wall or framework in place of the hill with its favoring
slopes. All of the theatres built at Rome previous to the year
55 B.C. were of wood. In that year Pompey the Great returned
from his campaigns in the East, where he had seen the Greek
theatre at Mitylene, and immediately set to work to erect, in
imitation of it, a stone theatre at Rome that should seat 40,000
spectators. This structure and two others, one of which was
built by Augustus, were the only theatres at the capital.

The first Roman amphitheatre seems to have been the out-
growth of the rivalry between Pompey and Caesar. The liberality
of the former in the erection of his stone theatre had so won for
him the affections of the people that the latter saw he must do
something to surpass his rival, or see himself entirely distanced in
the race for popular favor. Caesar was at this time away in Gaul,
whence he sent immense sums of money, gained by his successful
wars, to his friend Curio, then tribune at Rome, who was enjoined
to erect, with the means thus put into his hands, a structure that
should cast Pompey's into the shade. Pliny tells us that Curio
built two wooden theatres side by side, in which two separate
audiences might be entertained at the same time. With things
thus arranged, and with the people in good-humor from the
farcical representations that had been given, all was ready for the

THE COLOSSEUM.

383

master-stroke that was to win the applause of the fickle multitude.
At a given signal, one of the theatres, which had been constructed
so as to admit of such a movement, was swung around and
brought face to face with the other, in such a way as to form a
vast amphitheatre, where, from a central space called the arena
and designed for the exhibitions, the seats rose in receding tiers
on every side.

The first stone amphitheatre was erected during the reign of
Augustus. But the one that pushed all other edifices of this kind

THE COLOSSEUM. (From a Photograph.

far into the background, and in some respects surpasses any
other monument ever reared by man, was the structure com-
menced by Flavius Vespasian, and often called, after him, the
Flavian Amphitheatre, but better known as the Colosseum (see p.
239. The edifice is 574 feet in its greatest diameter, and was
capable of seating 87,000 spectators. The encircling wall rises in
four stories to the height of 156 feet. Within, the seats rose from

384 ARCHITECTURE.

the arena in retreating steps to the magnificent portico that
crowned the upper circle. Beneath the arena and seats were
large chambers designed as dens for the wild animals needed in
the shows. Sockets in the upper stone-work held pillars to which
were fastened the ropes by means of which an immense awning
was stretched over the heads of the spectators to keep out the
sun and rain. Fountain jets filled the air with perfumed spray ;
pieces of statuary, placed at advantageous points, relieved the
monotony of the endless circle of seats ; and bright-colored silken
decorations lent a festive appearance to the vast auditorium.

The enormous proportions of the Colosseum have enabled it to
resist all the agencies of destruction which have been at work
upon it through so many centuries. The crowning colonnade was
destroyed by fire ; the immense walls were quarried by the
builders of Rome for a thousand years, and from them was taken
material for the building of a multitude of castles, towers, and
palaces, erected in the capital during the Middle Ages ; and for
seventeen hundred years the tooth of time has been busy upon
every part of the gigantic structure. Yet, notwithstanding all
these concurring agencies of ruin, the Colosseum still stands
grand and impressive as at first, even more impressive because
of these marks that it bears of violence and of time. It rises
before us as " the embodiment of the power and splendor of the
empire."

Many of the most important cities of Italy and of the provinces
were provided with amphitheatres, similar in allessential respects
to the Colosseum at the capital, only much inferior in size, save
the one at Capua, which was nearly as large as the Flavian
structure.

Military E^oads. — Foremost among the works of utility exe-
cuted by the Romans, and the most expressive of the spirit of
the people, were their military roads. Radiating from the capital,
they grew with the growing empire, until all the countries about
the Mediterranean and beyond the Alps were united to Rome and
to one another by a perfect network of highways of such admirable

THE APPIAN WAY.

385

construction that even now, in their ruined state, they excite the
wonder of modern engineers.

The most noted of all the Roman roads was the Via Appia,
called by the ancients themselves the " Queen of Roads," which
ran from Rome to Capua. It was built by Appius Claudius
(312 B.C.), for wnom it was named. Afterwards it was continued
in a southeasterly direction, and carried across the peninsula to
Brundisium, an important seaport on the coast of Calabria,
whence expeditions were embarked for operations in the East.

THE APPIAN WAY. (From a Photograph.)

The Flaminian Way ran from the capital to Ariminum on the
Adriatic, and thence was extended, under another name, north-
ward into the valley of the Po. Several other roads, reaching out
from Rome in different directions, completed the communication
of the capital with the various cities and states of the peninsula.
As the limits of the Roman authority extended, new roads were
built in the conquered provinces — in Sicily, in Northern Africa,

.S86 ARCHITECTURE.

in Spain, over the Alps, along the Rhine and the Danube, through-
out Gaul, Britain, Greece, and all the East.

These military roads, with characteristic Roman energy and
disregard of obstacles, were carried forward, as nearly as pos-
sible, in straight lines and on a level, mountains being pierced
with tunnels,^ and valleys crossed by massive viaducts. Near
Naples may be seen one of these old tunnels still in use, called
the Grotto of the Posilippo, which is over half a mile in length.
It led the old Appian Way through a hill that at this point crossed
its course. The usual width of the roadway was about thirteen
feet ; the bed was formed of broken stone and cement, upon
which was sometimes laid, as in the case of the Via Appia, a
regular pavement formed of large blocks of the hardest stone.
Foot-paths often ran along the sides of the main roadway ; mile-
posts told the distance from the capital ; and upon the best-

1 In boring tunnels, the Roman engineers worked simultaneously from both
sides of the mountain, in the same way that modern engineers do. In i860 an
inscription was discovered which contains a curious report of an engineer who
had in charge the construction of an aqueduct tunnel for the town of Saldae,
in Algeria. During his absence the boring went awry, and the ends of the
sections could not be brought together. The engineer was sent for. His
report says: "I found everybody sad and despondent; they had given up all
hopes that the two opposite sections of the tunnel would meet, because each
section had already been excavated beyond the middle of the mountain, and
the junction had not yet been effected. As always happens in these cases, the
fault was attributed to the engineer, as though he had not taken all precautions
to insure the success of the work. What could I have done better? I began
by surveying and taking the levels of the mountain; I marked most carefully
the axis of the tunnel across the ridge; I drew plans and sections of the whole
work, which plans I handed over to Petronius Celer, then governor of Mauri-
tania; and to take extra precaution, I summoned the contractor and his work-
men, and began the excavation in their presence . , . Well, during the four
years I was absent at Lambsese, expecting every day to hear the good tidings
of the arrival of the waters at Saldae, the contractor and the assistant had com-
mitted blunder upon blunder; in each section of the tunnel they had diverged
from the straight line, each towards his right, and, had I waited a little longer
before coming, Saldae would have possessed two tunnels instead of one." —
Lakciani's Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries, p. 61.

THE CLAUDIAN AQUEDUCT.

387

appointed roads seats were found disposed at proper intervals
for the convenience of travellers. In the Forum at Rome was a
gilded post, the ideal centre of the empire, and so of course of
the world, from which distances on all the radiating roads were
measured.

Aqueducts. — To supply a great city with abundant and whole-
some water is a matter of no less difficulty than importance. All
the great capitals of the world, ancient and modem, have secured

THE CLAUDIAN AQUEDUCT. (From a Photograph.)

this boon only by the most lavish expenditure of labor and money.
The kings of Babylon expended immense labor in the distribution
of water through the gardens and residences of their capital.
Solomon's greatest work, after the Temple, was the cutting of
reservoirs (still existing as Solomon's Pools) for the collecting of
water, and the construction of conduits to lead the same, from a
distance of several miles, within the walls of Jerusalem. But the
aqueducts of ancient Rome were the most stupendous construe-

388 ARCHITECTURE.

tions of this nature ever executed by the inhabitants of any city.
That capital was probably better supplied with water than any
other great city of ancient or, possibly, of modern times. The old
writers compare to rivers the streams that the aqueducts poured
through its streets.-

The water-system of Rome was commenced by Appius Claudius
(about 313 B.C.), who secured the building of an aqueduct which
led water into the city from the Sabine hills, through a subterra-
nean channel eleven miles in length. From the spoils obtained
in the war with Pyrrhus was built the Anio Aqueduct, so named
because it brought water from the Anio River. A second aque-
duct running from the same stream, and called the Anio Nova,
to distinguish it from the older conduit, was about fifty-six miles
in length. It ran beneath the ground until within about six miles
of the city, when it was taken up on arches and thus carried over
the low levels into the capital. In places this aqueduct was held
up more than a hundred feet above the plain. During the repub-
lic four aqueducts were completed ; under the emperors the num-
ber was increased to fourteen.^

The Romans carried their aqueducts across depressions and
valleys on high arches of masonry, not because they were igno-
rant of the principle that water seeks a level, but for the reason
that they could not make large pipes strong enough to resist the
very great pressure to which they would be subjected.^ In some
cases the principle of the inverted siphon was employed, and
pipes (usually lead or earthen) were laid down one side of a
valley and up the opposite slope. But their liability to accident,
when the pressure was heavy, as we have intimated, led to the
adoption in general of the other method. The lofty arches of

1 Several of these are in use at the present day.

2 " As to the main aqueducts, which suppUed Rome with a daily volume
of 54,CMX),ooo cubic feet of water, it would have been impossible to substi-
tute metal pipes for channels of masonry, because the Romans did not know
cast-iron, and no pipe except of cast-iron could have su])ported such enormous
pressure." — Lanciani's Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries, p. 60

THERMS, OR BATHS. 389

the ruined aqueducts that run in long broken Unes over the plains
beyond the walls of Rome are described by all visitors to the old
capital as the most striking feature of the desolate Campagna.

Thermae, or Baths. — The greatest demand upon the streams
of water poured into Rome by the aqueducts was made by
the Thermae, or baths.^ Among the ancient Romans, bathing,
regarded at first simply as a troublesome necessity, became in
time a luxurious art. During the republic, bathing-houses were
erected in considerable numbers, the use of which could be
purchased by a small entrance fee equivalent to about one cent
of our money. Towards the end of the republic, when bathing
had already come to be regarded as a luxury, ambitious politicians,
anxious to gain the favor of the masses, would secure a free day
for them at the baths. But it was during the imperial period that
those magnificent structures to which the name of Therma
properly attaches, were erected. Nero, Titus, Trajan, Commodus,
Caracalla, Decius, Constantine, and Diocletian, all erected splendid
thermae, which, as they were intended to exhibit the liberality of
their builders, were thrown open to the public free of charge.
These edifices were very different affairs from the bathing-houses
of the republican era. Those raised by the emperors were among
the most elaborate and expensive of the imperial works. They
contained chambers for cold, tepid, hot, sudatory, and swimming
baths ; dressing-rooms and gymnasia ; museums and libraries ;
covered colonnades for loitering and conversation; extensive
grounds filled with statues and traversed by pleasant walks ; and
every other adjunct that could add to the sense of luxury and
relaxation.^ The pavements were frequently set with the richest

^ Vast quantities of water were also absorbed by the fountains, of which
Rome is said to have had a larger number than any other city of the world in
any age. M. Agrippa, the builder of the Pantheon, is credited with having
set up 105, and his example found many imitators.

2 Lanciani very aptly calls these imperial thermae " gigantic club-houses,
whither the voluptuary and the elegant youth repaired for pastime and enjoy-
ment."

390 ARCHITECTURE.

mosaics. The Thermae of Diocletian contained over three thou-
sand of these stone pictures. Caracalla's Baths had over sixteen
hundred marble seats ; granite pillars from Egypt decorated the
colonnades ; green marble panelUngs, cut in Numidia, hned many
of the chambers ; the fixtures of the baths were plated, and in
some of the rooms were of solid silver. Some conception of the
stupendous size of this structure may be gained from the fact that
the entrance hall, or rotunda, of the building was almost as large
as the celebrated Pantheon, which it resembled in form.

It was not the inhabitants of the capital alone that had con-
verted bathing into a luxury and an art. There was no town of
any considerable size anywhere within the limits of the empire
that was not provided with its thermae ; and wherever springs
possessing medicinal qualities broke from the ground, there arose
magnificent baths, and such spots became the favorite watering-
places of the Romans. Thus Baden-Baden was a noted and
luxurious resort of the wealthy Romans centuries before it be-
came the great summer haunt of the Germans. Baiae, near
Naples, on account of its warm sulphur springs and the beauty
of its surroundings, became crowded with the pleasure-seekers
of the capital. These bathing-towns, as was almost inevitable,
acquired an unenviable reputation as hotbeds of vice and shame-
less indulgence.

All the Roman thermae, after suffering repeated spoliation
at the hands of successive robl^ers, have sunk into great heaps
of rubbish. Many of their beautiful marbles were carried off
by different Greek emperors to Constantinople. Charlemagne
decorated his palace at Aix-la-Chapelle with columns torn from
these imperial structures, which were then falling into dilapida-
tion at Rome. The popes built others into St. Peter's Cathe-
dral ; and the masons of Rome, like the brick-hunters of Baby-
lon and Nineveh, for centuries mined amidst the vast heaps
of the ruined structures for marble blocks and statues, to be
burned into lime for making cement. Modern excavations have

PALACES AND VILLAS. 391

recovered from the mounds of rubbish some of the most famous
of the sculptures that are to be found in the museums of Europe.

Palaces and Villas. — The residences of the wealthy Romans
when built within the city walls were called mansions or pal-
aces, but when located in the country were usually designated
as villas. The Palatine was the aristocratic quarter of Rome,
being occupied by the homes of the wealthy class. After the
Great Fire, Nero erected here his Golden House, whose various
buildings, courts, gardens, vineyards, fish-ponds, and other in-
numerable appendages, spread over much of the burnt district.
It was " the most stupendous dwelling-place," declares Inge, " ever
built for a mortal man." The central building upon the Palatine,
shorn of its extensive grounds and useless adjuncts, became the
residence of most of the emperors who held the throne after the
death of Nero.

Among the villas frequently mentioned by the old writers are
those of Scipio, Metellus, LucuUus, Cicero, Hortensius, Pliny,
Horace, Virgil, Hadrian, and Diocletian. But to attempt enu-
meration would be misleading. Every wealthy Roman possessed
his villa, and many affected to keep up several in different parts
of Italy. These country residences, while retaining the elegance
and all the conveniences of the city palace, — baths, museums,
and libraries, — added to these such adjuncts as were denied a
place by the restricted room of the capital, — extensive gardens,
aviaries, fish-ponds, vineyards, olive orchards, shaded walks, and
well-kept drives.

Perhaps the most noted of Roman villas was that of Hadrian at
Tibur, now Tivoh. It was intended to be a miniature representa-
tion of the world — both the upper and the lower. There were
theatres, baths, and temples of rare workmanship. In one part
of the grounds were rep'-oduced the Thessalian Vale of Terape
and other celebrated bits of scenery. Subterranean labyrinths
enabled the visitor to make an ^nean descent into Hades, and a
journey amidst the scenes of the dolorous region.^

1 GUHL and Koner's Life of the Greeks ami Romans, p. 372.

392

AJi CHITE CTURE.

Within the ruined enclosure of the villa of Diocletian — the em-
peror who gave up imperial cares to raise vegetables at Salona, on
the Adriatic — are crowded the buildings of the little modern
village of Spalatro.

Triumphal Columns and Arches. — Among all peoples, what-
ever be their place in the scale of civilization, we find an instinct

ARCH OF CONSTANTINE.

or sentiment which prompts them to endeavor to perpetuate the
memory of important events in their history by means of com-
memorative monuments. When Jacob, upon the spot where he
had dreamed, set up a stone for a pillar and poured oil upon the
top of it, he simply obeyed that universal impulse which has given
to the world the grand lettered obelisks of the Pharaohs, destined,
seemingly, to stand as long as the world shall endure, and the
imposing sculptured columns of the Romans, to some of which

SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS^ 393

seems to have been granted the immortality of the Egyptian mon-
uments.

The first historic column raised by the Romans was erected in
the year 261 B.C., to commemorate their first naval victory, gained
by Duillius over the Carthaginian fleet. It was decorated with
the brazen prows of the broken and captured ships of the enemy
(see p. 253). Trajan's Column, built to commemorate the Da-
cian victories of that emperor, is a remarkable work. It is still
s'.anding in an almost perfect state of preservation. It is over one
hundred feet in he-ght, and is pictured from base to summit with
representations cf battles and various scenes illustrative of Trajan's
Dacian campaigns (see p. 342).

The triumphal arches of the Romans were modelled after the
city gates, being constructed with single and with triple archways.
Two of the most noted monuments of this character, and the most
interesting because of their historic connection?, are the Aich of
Titus and the Arch of Constantine, both of which are still standing.
Upon the former are represented the articles brought from Jerusa-
lem by Titus as the spoils of the war against the Jews (see p. 339).
The Arch of Constantine was intended to commemorate the vic-
tory of that emperor over Maxentius, which event established
Christianity as the imperial and favored religion of the empire.

Sepulchral MonTiments. — The Romans in the earliest times
seem to have usually buried their dead ; but towards the close
of the republican period cremation, or burning, became common.
When Christianity took possession of the empire, the doctrine of
the resurrection of the dead which it taught caused inhumation,
or burying, again to become the prevalent mode.

The favorite burying-place among the Romans was along the
highways ; the Appian Way was lined with sepulchral monuments
for a distance of several miles from the gates of the capital (see
3ut on p. 385). Many of these are still standing. These memorial
structures were as varied in design as are the monuments in our
modern cemeteries. Shafts, broken columns, altars, pyramids,
and chapels were oft-recurring forms.

394 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

Two sepulchral edifices of the imperial era deserve special
notice. One of these was raised by Augustus as a tomb and
monument for himself and his successors. It stood close to the
banks of the Tiber, and consisted of an enormous circular tower
raised upon a massive square substructure. A century later, this
sepulchre having become filled, Hadrian constructed a similar
monument, which was richer, however, in marbles and sculptures,
upon the opposite bank of the Tiber. This structure was called,
after the emperor, the Mole, or Mausoleum, of Hadrian. It is
now used as a miUtary fortress under the name of the Castle of
St. Angelo. The massive structure, battered by many sieges and
assaults and decayed through lapse of time, presents, next after
thtf Colosseum, the most imposing appearance of any of the mon-
uments of the ancient Romans.

Literature, Philosophy, and Law.

Literature among the Romans. — The literary or purely in-
tellectual life of the Romans was in every way far inferior to that
of the Greeks. The old conquerors of the world were Loo prac-
tical a race — were too much absorbed in the business of war and
government — to find much time to pay devotion to the Muses, or
to pursue with much earnestness those philosophical speculations
which were so congenial to the Attic intellect.^ All the national
aims and pursuits of this martial race trained their ear to catch
more music in the tread of legions than in the sweetest cadences
of the poet's verse. Their very amusements tended to the same
end as did their more serious employments. The stern real trag-
edies of the amphitheatre rendered tame the mock tragedies of
the stage. The inspiration and encouragement of popular appre-
ciation and applause, which raised the tragic drama to such lofty
excellence at Athens, were almost wholly wanting at Rome.

1 " The deepest and ultimate reason of the diversity between the two nations
lay beyond doubt in the fact that Latium did not, and that Hellas did, during
the season of growth come into contact with the East." — Mommsen.

THE PERIOD OF LITERARY ACTIVITY. 395

Therefore, in the brief examination which we now purpose to
make of Latin hterature, we must not expect to discover such worth
and genius as distinguish the intellectual productions of the Hel-
lenic race ; still we shall find the literary memorials of the Roman
people possessing so many eminent qualities and so much merit
that we shall acknowledge they are justly assigned a prominent,
though not the foremost, place among the literary treasures of the
world.

The Period of Literary Activity. — It was only the last two
centuries of the republic and the first of the empire — only three
centuries in all — that were marked by the literary activity and
productiveness of the Latin intellect. The first five centuries of
Roman history are almost barren of literary monuments. But in
the third century B.C., under the fostering influences of the repub-
lic, literature began to spring up and to flourish, and by the time
of the establishment of the empire, had reached its fullest and
richest development ; then, upon the fall of the institutions of the
republican era, it soon begun to languish, and survived the death
of freedom barely a single century. The last four hundred years
of the imperial era exhibit the name of scarcely a single writer of
vigor and originality.

We here learn how depressing and withering are the influences
of a capricious and irresponsible despotism, which forbids all
freedom and truthfulness, upon the intellectual and literary life of
a people. Literature is a plant that thrives best in the free air of a
republic. It is true, indeed, that some of the choicest fruit of the
Latin intellect ripened during the first years of the empire ; but
this had been long maturing under the influences of the republican
period, and should properly be credited to that era. Besides, the
evil tendencies of the unlimited monarchy had not yet manifested
themselves under Augustus; still, even during the reign of that
emperor, Ovid, one of the brightest minds of the period, was
exiled, without any reason being assigned for the act, to the bar-
barous shores of the Euxine. But the conduct of the despot
Nero will better illustrate what we have affirmed. That tyrant

396 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

was on the point of burning every copy of the Iliad and of the
^jieid, because, in the imperial judgment, Homer had no taste,
and Virgil was without genius. What shall literature do under
such censorship ?

Eelation of Roman to Greek Literature. — Latin literature was
almost wholly imitative or borrowed, being a reproduction of
Greek models ; still it performed a most important service for
civilization : it was the medium for the dissemination throughout
the world of the rich literary treasures of Greece.

In order to realize the greatness of its work and influence, we
must bear in mind that the spread of the Latin tongue was coex-
tensive with the conquests of Rome. The subjugated nations,
with the laws of their conquerors, received also their language.
In those countries where the subjected peoples were inferior in
civilization to the Romans, the language of the conquerors came
into general use. Such was the condition of all the nations in
the West. Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Northern Africa became so
thoroughly Romanized before the overthrow of the empire that
the Latin tongue, much corrupted of course from the classical
forms of the capital, came into universal use among all classes.
It was somewhat different in the East, where the Hellenic language
and culture had been spread. The speech of Rome never suc-
ceeded in crowding out the Greek language as it pushed aside
and displaced the various rude and barbarous dialects of the
tribes of Western Europe. Yet throughout all the Eastern prov-
inces the Roman tongue became the speech of the ruling class,
and was understood and very generally employed by men of
education and social position.

We see, then, how very extended was the audience addressed
by the Roman writers. The works of the Latin poets and his-
torians were read everywhere within the limits of the Roman
empire, and that is equivalent to saying that they circulated
throughout the civilized world. And wherever Latin literature
found its way there were scattered broadcast the seeds of Grecian
culture, science, and philosophy. The relation of Rome to

LAVS AND BALLADS OF LEGENDARY AGE. 397

Greece was exactly the same as that of Phoenicia to Egypt, as
expressed by Lenormant : Greece was the mother of modem
civilization ; Rome was its missionary.

Lays and Ballads of the Legendary Age. — The period em-
braced between the eighth and fourth centuries B.C. may properly
be called the Heroic Age of Rome. It corresponds exacdy, in its
literary products, to the similarly designated period in Grecian
history. During this early age there sprang up a great number of
hymns, ballads, or lays, of which the merest fragments survived
the varying fortunes of the state, and were preserved in the works
of the later writers of the republic. "The fabulous birth of
Romulus, the rape of the Sabine women, the most poetical com-
bat of the Horatii and Curiatii, the pride of Tarquin, the misfor-
tunes and death of Lucretia, the establishment of liberty by the
elder Brutus, the wonderful war with Porsenna, the steadfast-
ness of Scaevola, the banishment of Coriolanus, the war which he
kindled against his country, the subsequent struggle of his feelings,
and the iinal triumph of his patriotism at the all-powerful interces-
sion of his mother — these and the like circumstances, if they be
examined from the proper point of view, cannot fail to be consid-
ered as reUcs and fragments of the ancient heroic traditions and
heroic poems of the Romans." *

These stories must be placed along with the Grecian tales of
Cadmus and Theseus, of the Argonautic Expedition and the
Trojan War. They belong to the literary, and not to the historical,
annals of the Roman people. They may be made use of for his-
torical purposes, but only in the same way that the poems of
Homer are used. The references and allusions they contain throw
light upon the manners, customs, and modes of thinking of the
remote times in which they grew up. The few threads of fact
that may be drawn from them have been woven into the picture
which, in a previous chapter, we attempted to form of the early
Roman state.

1 Schlegel, in Lectures on Literaittre, as quoted by Dunlop in History of
Roman Literature, vol. i. p. 41.

398 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

The Roman Dramatists. — From the eariiest times Rome was
under the influence of Grecian civiHzation, as is shown in the
laws of the Twelve Tables ; but the conquest of the Hellenic
cities of Southern Italy as the outcome of the war with Pyrrhus,
and the acquisition of Sicily as the result of the First Punic War,
brought the Romans into much closer relations than had hitherto
existed with the arts and culture of the Greeks. The Romans
now began to study with much appreciation, and not without
profit, the rich stores of Greek literature opened to them. Among
the leading families of Rome, it became the fashion to commit
the education of children to Greek slaves. The conqueror bows
at the feet of the conquered. The intellectual sway of Athens
over Rome becomes not less complete and despotic than the
political sway of Rome over Athens. The debt incurred by the
Romans in all intellectual and literary matters to the Greeks has
been declared to be but faintly paralleled by that incurred by
the English in theology, philosophy, and music to Germany.^
"Their [the Romans'] genius, I believe," says Dunlop, "would
have remained unproductive and cold half a century longer, had
it not been kindled by contact with a warm, polished, and ani-
mated nation, whose compositions could not be read without
enthusiasm or imitated without advantage."^

It was the dramatic productions of the Greeks which were first
copied and studied by the Romans. Translations for the stage,
particularly those of a comic character, were received with great
favor, and the theatre became the popular resort of all classes.
For nearly two centuries, from 240 b.c. to 78 B.C., dramatic litera-
ture was almost the only form of composition cultivated at Rome.
Durmg this epoch appeared all the great dramatists ever produced
by the Latin-speaking race. Of these we may name, for brief
mention, Livius Andronicus, Nsevius, Ennius, Plautus, and Ter-
rence. All of these writers were close imitators of Greek authors.

^ Crutwell's History of Roman Literature, p. 36.
^DuNLOP's History of Roman Literature, vol. i, p. 55.

THE ROMAN DRAMATISTS. 399

and most of their works were simply adaptations or translations of
the masterpieces of the Greek dramatists.

Livius Andronicus, who lived about the middle of the third cen-
tury B.C., was probably a Greek prisoner carried to Rome from
some city of Magna Graecia. He was the father of the Roman
drama. He transformed the mimic dances, which had been in-
troduced at Rome by Etruscan actors about a century before his
time (in 364 B.C.), into a real dramatic representation, by adding
to the performance dialogues to be recited by the actors. He was
the performer of his own pieces, and was so often recalled by his
admirers that he overtaxed and lost his voice. After this misfor-
tune befell him, he employed a boy to declaim those parts of the
dialogue which required to be rendered in a high tone, while he
himself played the flute, recited the less declamatory passages,
and accompanied the whole with the proper gesticulation. This
mode of representation, which Livius had been constrained to
adopt through accident, afterwards became the fashion in the
Roman theatres ; and the plays were usually presented by two
persons, one reciting the words and the other accompanying
them with the appropriate gestures.

Naevius, who wrote about the close of the third century B.C.,
was the first native-born Roman poet of eminence. His works
were translations from various Greek dramatists. He imitated
Aristophanes ; and as the latter lashed the corrupt politicians of
Athens, so did the former expose to ridicule and contempt differ-
ent members of the leading patrician families at Rome. He did
not escape with impunity ; for he was once in prison, and finally
died an exile at Utica or Cathage (about 204 B.C.). Naevius bore
part as a soldier in the First Punic War, and he found solace
during the years of his exile in writing in epic verse the events of
that stirring time.

Ennius, a contemporary of Naevius, was an epic as well as a
dramatic writer. The greatest work from his prolific pen was the
Annals, an epic poem recounting in graceful and vigorous verse
the story of Rome from the times of the kings to his own day.

400 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

Had Virgil never lived, Ennius must always have been named as
the greatest epic poet produced by the Roman race ; and the
fragments of his Annals which still survive would be carefully pre-
served as the remains of the Roman Iliad. For two centuries,
until the advent of the Augustan poets, the works of Ennius held
almost supreme sway over the Roman mind. His verses were
constantly rehearsed in the theatres ; they were committed to
memory by the Roman youth, were quoted by the orator, and
borrowed by the poet. Virgil acknowledged Ennius as his master
by becoming a diligent student of his works, and by transcribing
word for word many of his most beautiful passages.

Plautus (254-184 B.C.) and Terence (195-161 B.C.) were writers
of comedy, who won a fame that has not yet perished. Plautus
adapted various Greek plays to the Roman stage. Almost all
his pieces he filled with low wit and drollery, in order to catch
the ear of the lower classes that thronged the theatres. His plays
reproduced before the inhabitants of the capital the corrupt life
of the East, whose debasing influences were at this time beginning
to effect a lowering of the tone of society at Rome. Terence
wrote more for the cultured classes, and did not stoop to employ
those means by which Plautus secured the applause of his audi-
ences. All of the six comedies which Terence wrote were either
translations or adaptations from the Greek. As Plautus and Terence
borrowed from the Greek stage, so have all modern writers of
comedy — Italian, French, and English — drawn freely from these
their great Roman predecessors.^

^ "'The earliest writers,' as has justly been remarked, 'took possession of
the most striking objects for description, and the most probable occurrences
for fiction, and left nothing to those that followed but transcriptions of the
same events, and new combinations of the same images' {Rassclas^ The
great author from whom these reflections are quoted had at one time actually
projected a work to show how small a quantity of invention there is in the
world, and that the same images and incidents, with little variation, have
served all the authors who have ever written. Had he prosecuted his inten-
tion, he would have found the notion he entertained fully confirmed by the
history both of dramatic and romantic fiction; he would have perceived the

POETS OF THE LATER REPUBLICAN ERA. 401

Poets of the Later Republican Era. — In the year 146 b.c,
Corinth in Greece was destroyed, the treasures of its museums
and the rolls of its libraries were carried to Italy, and Roman
authority became supreme throughout Greece. The impulse that
had been given to the study of Greek models by the conquest of
Magna Graecia more than one hundred years before was now
intensified and strengthened. But with the introduction of the
learning ani refinement of the conquered states came also the
luxuries and vices of the East. Just at this time, evoked, it would
seem, by the shameless extravagances and corruptions that invited
rebuke, appeared Lucilius (born 148 B.C.), one of the greatest
of Roman satirists. The later satirists of the corrupt imperial era
were the imitators of the republican poet.

Besides Lucilius, there appeared during the later republican era
only two other poets of distinguished merit, — Lucretius and
Catullus. Both were born early in the last century before Christ.
Lucretius studied at Athens, where he became deeply imbued
with the doctrines of the Epicurean philosophy, which at that
time was in the ascendant at the Attic capital. He left behind
him but a single work, entitled De Re rum Natura — (" On the
Nature of Things "). Lucretius was a thorough evolutionist, and
in his great poem we find anticipated many of the conclusions of
modem scientists. He pictures Chaos with more than Miltonic
power ; tells how the worlds were formed by a " fortuitous con-
course of atoms " j relates how the generations of life were
evolved by the teeming earth; ridicules the superstitions of his
countrymen, declaring that the gods do not trouble themselves
with earthly affairs, but that storms, lightning, volcanoes, and
pestilences are produced by natural causes, and not by the anger

incapacity of the most active and fertile imagination greatly to diversify
the common characters and incidents of hfe, which, on a superficial view, one
might suppose to be susceptible of infinite combinations; he would have found
that, while Plautus and Terence servilely copied from the Greek dramatists,
even Ariosto scarcely diverged in his comedies from the paths of Plautus."
— DUNLOP's History oj Roman Literature, Preface, p. xix.

402 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW,

of the celestials ; and finally reaches the conclusion that death
ends all for the human soul. Lucretius is studied more by mod-
ern scholars, whose discoveries and theories he so marvellously
anticipated, than he was by the Romans of his own time.

Catullus was a poet the beauty and sweetness of whose verses
are winning to their study at the present day many ardent
admirers. He was born 87 B.C., and died at the age of about
forty. He complains of poverty; yet he kept two villas, and
found means to indulge in all the expensive and licentious
pleasures of the capital. He has been called the Roman Burns,
as well on account of the waywardness of his life as from the
sweetness of his song. The name of Catullus closes the short
list of the prominent poets of the republican period of the Golden
Age.

Poets of the Augnstan Age. — Three poets have cast an
unfading lustre over the period covered by the reign of Augustus,
— Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. So distinguished have these writers
rendered the age in which they lived, that any period in a
people's literature signahzed by exceptional literary taste and
refinement is called, in allusion to the Roman era, an Augustan
Age. After the terrific commotion that marked the decline and
overthrow of the republic, the long and firm and peaceful reign
of Augustus brought welcome relief and rest to the Roman world,
wearied with conquests and with contentions over the spoils of
war. In narrating the poUtical history of this period, we spoke
of the effect of the fall of the republic upon the development of
Latin literature. Many who, if the republican institutions had
continued, would have been absorbed in the affairs of the state,
were led, by the change of government, to seek solace for
their disappointed hopes, and employment for their enforced
leisure, in the graceful labors of elegant composition. Augustus
encouraged this disposition, thinking thus to turn the thoughts of
ambitious minds from broodings over the lost cause. By his
princely patronage of letters he opened a new and worthy field
for the efforts and competitions of the active and the aspiring.

POETS OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE. 403

His minister Maecenas, in whose veins flowed royal Etruscan
blood, vied with his master in the bestowal of munificent rewards
upon friends, and in the extension of a helpful and inspiring
patronage to literary merit, and thus did much towards creating
the enthusiasm for letters that distinguishes this period.

The vastness of the audience they addressed also reacted upon
the writers of this era, and encouraged the greatest painstaking in
all their productions. Never before had literary men spoken to
so extended an audience — to so much of the world. The bound-
aries of the Roman empire now touched everywhere the limits
of civilization. And throughout these ample domains the Roman
language had become more or less universally spread. In all the
West, as we have seen, in Italy, in Gaul, in Spain, in the cities of
Northern Africa, it was rapidly supplanting the barbarous dialects
of the conquered tribes ; while throughout all the provinces and
cities of the East it was the speech of the court, of the aristocracy,
of learning. The works of Virgil, of Horace, and of Ovid were
read and admired in the camps of Gaul and in the capitals of
Greece and Syria. Political tranquillity, elegant leisure, imperial
patronage, the inspirations of Greek genius, the encouragement
of appreciation and wide attention — everything conspired to
create an epoch in the world of literature.

And yet we must not look for vigor, strength, originality,
nervous energy, in the productions of the writers of this period.
These qualities belong to times of great public excitement; to
periods of activity, change, revolution ; to those eras that signalize
the crises and grand struggles of a people's life. They mark
creative, Shakespearian epochs in literature. Elegance, grace,
refinement, polish, taste, beauty, are the characteristics of the
Augustan writers.

Of the three poets whom we have named as the representatives
of the poetry of the Augustan period, Virgil doubtless has been
the most widely read and admired. He was bom 70 b.c. in the
little village of Andes, not far from Mantua. In diligent study
at Rome, he formed the acquaintance of the master-minds of

404 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

Grecian literature, and felt the inspirations of the past life of
Hellas. Upon his farm at Mantua he learned to love nature and
the freedom of a country life. During the disorders of the
Second Triumvirate his villa was confiscated, along with the
whole Mantuan district, and given to friends of Octavius and
Antony. It was afterwards restored to the poet by Augustus.
Virgil was laboring upon his greatest work, the ^iieid, when
death came to him, in the fifty-second year of his age.

The three great works of Virgil are his Eclogues, the Georgics,
and the yEneid. The Eclogues are a series of pastorals, which
are very close imitations of the poems of the Sicilian Theocritus.^
Virgil, however, never borrowed without adorning that which he
appropriated by the inimitable touches of his own graceful genius.
It is the rare sweetness and melody of the versification of these
pieces and the deep love of nature shown in them that have won
for them so many admirers.

In the poem of the Georgics Virgil extols and dignifies the
husbandman and his labor. This work has been pronounced the
most finished poem in the entire range of Latin literature. It
was written at the suggestion of Maecenas, who hoped by means
of the poet's verse to allure his countrymen back to that love
for the art of husbandry which animated the fathers of the early
Roman state. Throughout the work Virgil follows very closely
the Works and Days of Hesiod.^ The poet treats of all the
labors and cares of the farm — gives valuable precepts respecting
the keeping of bees and cattle, the sowing and tillage of crops,
the dressing of vineyards and orchards, and embellishes the whole
with innumerable passages containing beautiful descriptions of
natural scenery, or inculcating some philosophical truth, or teach-
ing some moral lesson. Without the Georgics we should never
have had the Seasons of Thomson ; for this work of the English
poet is in a large measure a direct translation of the verses of
Virgil.

^ See History of Greece, p. 174.
"^ Ibid., p. 158.

POETS OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE. 405

The y£neid stands next to the Iliad as the greatest epic poem
of all literatures. It tells the story of the wanderings of ^neas
and his companions up and down the Mediterranean after the
downfall of Troy, his settlement in Italy, and the struggles of his
descendants with the native inhabitants of the land. Through
^neas, the hero of the poem, Virgil doubdess intends to repre-
sent and compUment the character of his patron, Augustus. In
this, his greatest work, Virgil was a close student of the Iliad and
the Odyssey, and to them he is indebted for very many of his
finest metaphors, similes, and descriptive passages, as well as for
the general plan and structure of the entire work. To Ennius
is he also indebted for many a verse. Homer was Virgil's superior
in energy and originality, and in the martial grandeur of his lines ;
while the latter surpassed his master in the grace and melody of
his versification,

Virgil enjoyed for his work that reward which many another
worthy poet has been denied — the appreciation of his genius
during his own lifetime. The poet, in accordance with a custom
that in his day was common, read or recited his poems in the pres-
ence of select friends, and also in public. On one occasion he
repeated the sixth book of his y£neid before his imperial patron
Augustus and hi^ sister Octavia, who was then mourning the recent
death of her son Marcellus, the special favorite and adopted child
of the emperor. In the part of the poem rehearsed by Virgil
occurs the well-known passage that mourns with the tenderest
pathos the too early death of the favorite prince. The closing
lines, which alone reveal the name of the subject of the lament,

run thus :

" Ah, dear lamented boy, canst thou but break
The stern decrees of fate, then wilt thou be
Our own Marcellus ! — Give me lilies, brought
In heaping handfuls. Let me scatter here
Dead purple flowers; these offerings at least
To my descendant's shade I fain would pay,
Though now, alas ! an unavailing rite." *

1 jEneid, book vi. (Cranch's translation^.

406 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

It is said that as Virgil read these verses Octavia was so carried
away by her feelings that she fainted, and that the poet was after-
wards presented with 10,000 sesterces (about ^400) for each of
Ihe twenty-five lines of the passage.

Horace, the second great poet of the Augustan Age, was born
in the year 65 B.C., only five years later than Virgil, whom he out-
Uved by about a single decade. He studied at Ath'^ns, fought with
the republicans at Philippi, gained no glory — - for he tells us him-
self how he ran away from the field — but lost his paternal estate
at Venusia, which was confiscated, and under the imperial govern-
ment commenced life anew as a clerk at Rome. Through his
friend Virgil he secured the favor of Maecenas, and gained an
introduction to Augustus, and thenceforth led the life of a courtier,
dividing his time between the pleasures of the capital and the
scenes of his pleasant farm near the village of Tibur. The latter
years of his life were shadowed by the deaths of his poet-friends
Virgil and Tibullus, and that of his generous patron Maecenas,
whom he survived only a few weeks. Horace's Odes, Saiires, and
Epistles have all helped win for him his wide-spread fame ; but
the first best exhibit his rare grace and genius.

Ovid (42 B.c.-A.D. 18) is the third name in the triumvirate of
poets that ruled the Augustan Age. He was the most learned of
the three, seeming indeed to be acquainted with the whole round
of Greek and Latin literature and speculation. For some fault or
misdemeanor, the precise nature of which remains a profound
secret to this day, Augustus, his former friend and patron, ban-
ished the poet to a small town away on the frontiers of the empire
— on the bleak shores of the Euxine. There he spent the last
years of his life, bewailing his hard lot in the mournful verses of
his Tristia. His most celebrated work is his Metamorphoses, the
preservation of which we owe to the merest good-fortune. When
the emperor's decree was brought to him, he was at work revising
the manuscript, which, in despair or anger, he flung into the fire.
Fortunately some friend had previously made a copy of the work,
and thus this literary treasure was saved to the world. The poem

SATIRE AND SATIRISTS. 407

Opens with a sublime description of Chaos and the creation of the
world ; then tells of the production of monstrous life by the pro-
lific earth, and of the changing races of men and giants ; after
which the poet proceeds to describe, through fifteen books, be-
tween two and three hundred metamorphoses, or transformations
— such as the change of the companions of Ulysses into swine, of
Cadmus into a serpent, and of Arethusa into a fountain — suffered
by various persons, gods, heroes, and goddesses, as related in the
innumerable fables of the Greek and Roman mythologies.

We have already alluded to Tibullus as the friend of Virgil and
Horace. His graceful elegies entitle his name to a prominent
place among the poets of the Augustan Age. Propertius, too, was
another honored and beloved member of the briUiant coterie of
poets that have rendered the reign of Augustus ever memorable
in the literary history of the world.

Satire and Satirists. — Satire thrives best in the reeking soil
and tainted atmosphere of an age of selfishness, immorahty, and
vice. Such an age was that which followed the Augustan era at
Rome. The throne was held by such imperial monsters as Tibe-
rius, Caligula, Nero, and Domitian. The profligacy of fashionable
life at the capital and the various watering-places of the empire
was open and shameless. The degradation of the court; the
corrupt and dissolute life of the upper classes ; the imbruted life
of the masses, fed by largesses of com and entertained with the
bloody shows of the amphitheatre ; the decay of the ancient
religion, and the almost univeisal prevalence of unbelief and
absolute atheism ; the utter loss of the simplicity and virtue of
the early Roman fathers, and the almost complete degradation
of the intellect, — all these gave venom and point to the shafts of
those who were goaded by the spectacle into attacking the immo-
ralities and vices which were silendy yet rapidly sapping the
foundations of both society and state. Hence arose a succession
of writers whose mastery of sharp and stinging satire has caused
their productions to become the models of all subsequent attempts
in the same species of literature. Two names stand out in spe-

408 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

cial prominence, — Persius (a.d. 34-62) and Juvenal^ (about a.d.
40-120). The works of these writers possess a special historical
value and interest, since it is through them that we gain an insight,
such as we could obtain in no other way, into the venal and corrupt
life of the capital during the early portion of the imperial period.

The indignant protest of the writers Persius and Juvenal against
the vice and degradation of their time is almost the last utterance
of the Latin Muse. From this time forward the decay of the
intellectual life of Rome was swift and certain. While the Greek
intellect, as we have learned, survived by many centuries the
destruction of the political life of Greece, the Latin intellect sank
into decrepitude centuries before the final fall of the empire. The
political fabric — so admirably consolidated had it become through
the growth and labors of many centuries — remained standing,
like an aged oak, long after its heart had been eaten away. But
it could put forth no new shoots. After the death of Juvenal
(about A.D. 120) the Roman world produced not a single poet of
sufficient genius to merit our attention.

Oratory among the Romans. — " Public oratory," as has been
truly said, *• is the child of political freedom, and cannot exist
without it." We have seen this illustrated in the history of repub-
lican Athens. Equally well is the same truth exemplified by the
records of the Roman state. All the great orators of Rome arose
under the repubHc. As during this period almost the entire
intellectual force of the nation was directed towards legal and
political studies, it was natural, and indeed inevitable, that the
most famous orators of the era should appear as statesmen or

1 Martial, an epigrammatic poet (born about a.d. 40), also was a satirist
of this period, but he rebuked only some of the minor vices of society.
Many of his writings, judged by the moral sense of to-day, are grossly
immoral.

2 There are two other poets belonging to this age whose names must not
be passed unmentioned, — Lucan (a.d. 38-65) and Statius (a.d. 61-95).
Lucan's only extant work is his Pharsalia, an epic poem on the civil war
between Caesar and Pompey. Statius wrote two epics, the Theba'id and
the Achilleidy the latter being left incomplete.

ORATORY AMONG THE ROMANS. 409

advocates. Theology, science, and belles-lettres did not then, as
they have come to do among ourselves, suggest inviting and popu-
lar themes for the best efforts of the pubUc speaker.

Roman oratory was senatorial, popular, and judicial. These dif-
ferent styles of eloquence were represented by the grave and
dignified debates of the Senate, the impassioned and often noisy
and inelegant harangues of the Forum, and the learned pleadings
or ingenious appeals of the courts. Junius Brutus, Appius Claudius
Caecus, the Scipios, Cato the Censor, Gains and Tiberius Gracchus,
Gaius Laelius, Marcus Antonius, Lucius L. Crassus, Sulpicius,
Hortensius, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony,^ and Cicero are some of
the most prominent names that have made the rostrum of the
Roman Forum and the assembly-chamber of the Roman Senate
famous in the records of oratory and eloquence. Among all these
orators, Hortensius and Cicero are easily first.

Hortensius (114-50 B.C.) was a famous lawyer, whose name
adorns the legal profession at the capital both as the learned
jurist and the eloquent advocate. His forensic talent won for
him a lucrative law-practice, through which he gathered an im-
mense fortune. Besides a mansion on the Palatine, he possessed
several villas, which were kept up with a most profuse expenditure.
The olive-trees in his gardens were sprinkled with wine, to improve
the flavor of the fruit. His fish-ponds were stocked with an infi-
nite variety of fresh and marine fish, the food and health of which
were matters of greater concern to their master than the food
and health of his slaves. It is told that he actually wept over the
untimely death of a favorite lamprey.

But the brightness of the fame of Hortensius is dimmed by the
lustre of the name of Marcus TuUius Cicero ^ ( 106-43 B.C.) , the un-
tiring student, the constant patriot, the polished orator. He has
been called " the Edward Everett of antiquity." He enjoyed
every advantage that wealth and parental ambition could con-

1 Grandson of Marcus Antonius.

2 5ome critics, however, are unwilling to accord much praise to Cicera
Mommsen declares that he was nothing but a " dexterous stylist."

410

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

fer or suggest. His teachers were the poet Archias and the orator
Crassus. Like many others of the Roman patrician youths of his

time, he was sent to Greece to
finish his education in the schools
of Athens. Returning to Italy,
he soon assumed a position of
commanding influence at the Ro-
man capital. His prosecution of
Verres shows his hatred of the
official corruption and venality
that disgraced his times ; his ora-
tions against Catiline illustrate his
patriotism ; his essays exhibit the
wide range of his thoughts and the
nature of his philosophical reflec-
tions. The most of his works
evince the most scrupulous care
in their preparation. He was a
purist in language, and is said to have sometimes spent several
days hunting for a proper word or phrase. His greatest fault was
his overweening vanity, which appears in all he ever wrote, as well
as in every act of his life. But the times in which Cicero lived
rather than the orator himself are responsible for this. The an-
cient Romans possessed scarcely a trace of that sense of propriety
which has grown up among us, and which forbids a person's cele-
brating his own virtues. Self-laudation, when not too fulsome, did
not grate on the ears of Cicero's auditors.

Latin Historians. — Ancient Rome produced four writers of
history whose works have won for them a permanent fame — Cae-
sar, Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. Suetonius may also be mentioned
in this place, although his writings were rather biographical than
historical.^

CICERO. (From a bust at Madrid.)

^ A fuller list of Roman historical authors would have to admit the name of
Fabius Pictor, who lived in the age of Naevius, and was the first historian of
the Latin-speaking race; that of Cato the Censor, of whose Antiquities we

LATIN HISTORIANS. 411

Of Caesar and his Commentaries on the Gallic War, we have
learned in a previous chapter. This work and his Memoirs of the
Civil War are the productions on which his fame as a writer
depends. He also prepared a Latin grammar, a book on divina-
tion, a treatise on astronomy, and, besides, composed some poems
that are not without merit. But Caesar was a man of affairs rather
than a man of letters. Yet his Commentaries will always be men-
tioned along \vith the Anabasis of Xenophon, as a model of the
narrative style of writing.

Sallust (86-34 B.C.) was the contemporary and friend of Caesar.
He was praetor of one of the African provinces. Following the
example of the Roman officials of his time, he amassed by harsh
if not unjust exactions an immense fortune, and erected at Rome
a palatial residence with extensive and beautiful gardens, which
became one of the favorite resorts of the literary characters of the
capital. The two works upon which his fame rests are the Con-
spiracy of Catiline zxi^ the Jugur thine War. Both of these pro-
ductions are reckoned among the best examples of historical
composition in the range of Latin literature, and are found in
the hands of every classical student in the universities of Europe
and America.

Livy (59 B.C.-A.D.17) was one of the brightest ornaments of
the Augustan Age. In popular esteem he holds the first place
among Latin historical authors. Herodotus among the ancient,
and Macaulay among the modern, writers of historical narrative
are the names with which his is oftenest compared. His greatest
work is his Annals, a history of Rome from the earliest times to
the year 9 b.c. Unfortunately, all save thirty-five of the books
of this admirable production — the work filled one hundred and
forty-two volumes — perished during the disturbed period that
followed the overthrow of the empire. Many have been the
laments over "the lost books of Livy." The fragments which
remain have been universally read and admired for the inimitable

possess the merest fragments; and that of Cornelius Nepos, who wrote in the
first century B.C.

412 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

grace and ease of the flowing narrative. Livy loved a story
equally well with Herodotus. Like the Greek historian, he was
over-credulous, and relates with charming ingenuousness, without
the least questioning of their credibility, all the early legends,
myths, and ballads that were extant in his day, respecting the
early affairs of Rome. Modern critics, among whom are Niebuhr
and Mommsen, have shown that all the first portion of his history
is entirely unreliable as a chronicle of actual events. However, it
is a most entertaining account of what the Romans themselves
thought and believed respecting the origin of their race, the
founding of their city and state, and the deeds and virtues of
their forefathers.

The works of Tacitus are his Germania, a treatise on the
manners and customs of the Germans ; the Life of Agricola, his
History, and his Annals. All of these are most admirable pro-
ductions, polished and graceful narratives, full of entertainment
and instruction. His Germania, written, it is thought by some,
out of the fulness of knowledge derived from personal observation
through service or residence on the Rhenish frontier, gives us the
fullest information that we possess respecting the manners, beliefs,
and social arrangements of our barbarian ancestors while they
were yet living beneath their native forests. Tacitus dwells with
delight upon the simple life of the uncivilized Germans, and sets
their virtues in strong contrast with the immoralities of the refined
and cultured Romans. His treatise on the life and campaigns
of Agricola, his father-in-law, is pronounced one of the most
admirable biographies in the entire round of literature. It gives
a most vivid and picturesque portrayal of the conquest of Britain
and the establishment of Roman authority in that remote island.
The History and Annals cover the reigns of some of the best
and some of the worst of the rulers of the early empire. The
hot indignation of the virtuous and patriotic historian, poured
out in scathing invective against a Nero and a Domitian, has
caused his name to be frequently placed with those of Persius,
Juvenal, and the other Roman satirists.

SCIENCE, ETHICS, AND PHILOSOPHY. 413

Suetonius (a.d. 75-160) was the biographer of the Twelve
Caesars. It is to him that we are indebted for very many of the
details of the lives of these early emperors. The picture which
he draws is painted in dark colors, yet it is doubtless in the main
a fairly reliable portraiture of some of the most detestable tyrants
that ever disgraced a throne.

Science, Ethics, and Philosophy. — Under this head may be
grouped the names of Varro, Seneca, Pliny the Elder and Pliny
the Younger, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Quintilian, and Phaedrus.

Varro (116-26 B.C.) belongs to the later years of the republic.
His almost universal knowledge has earned for him the tide of
"the most learned of the Romans." He witnessed the terrific
scenes of the days of Sulla and Marius, of Pompey and Caesar, of
Octavius and Antony. He himself was among the proscribed in
the hsts of the cruel Antony, and his magnificent villas — for he
had immense wealth — were confiscated. Augustus gave him
back his farms, but could not restore his library, which had
perished in the sack of his villas. Like many another in those
turbulent times, when he saw the hopeless ruin of the republic
and the establishment of despotism in its place, he sought solace
in the pursuit of literature. Almost the entire circle of letters
was adorned by his versatile pen : he is said to have written five
hundred books. His most valuable production, however, was a
work on agriculture, a sort of hand-book for the Italian farmer.

Seneca (about a.d. 1-65), moralist and philosopher, has already
come to our notice as the tutor of Nero. The act of his life
which has been most severely condemed was the defence which
he made of his master before the Senate for the tyrant's mur-
der of his mother, Agrippina. Nero requited but poorly the
infamous service. Seneca possessed an enormous fortune, esti-
mated at 300,000,000 sesterces, which the ever-needy emperor
coveted ; he accordingly accused him of taking part in a con-
spiracy against his life, ordered his death, and confiscated his
estates. The philosopher met his fate calmly. Upon receiv-
ing the decree of his master, he opened the veins of his body, and

414

LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

died in his warm bath, whither he had retired in order that the
flow of the blood might be accelerated, for it had become sluggish
from age.

As a philosopher Seneca belonged to the school of the Stoics.

He wrote many essays and let-
ters, the latter intended for pub-
lication, containing lofty maxims
of wisdom and virtue, which he
certainly did not always follow in
the conduct of his own life. He
was a disbeliever in the popular
religion of his countrymen, and
entertained conceptions of God
and his moral government not
very different from the doctrines
of Socrates. So admirable are
his ethical teachings that it has
been maintained the philosopher
came under the influences of
Christianity; and several letters addressed to the apostle Paul,
which are stiU extant, were formerly referred to as proof of this fact ;
but these have been shown to be spurious. Besides his ethical
and philosophical writings, Seneca composed ten tragedies, de-
signed rather for reading than for the stage. Seneca's name will
ever be noted as that of a great teacher of virtue and morality to
a corrupt age, whose influence upon himself all his philosophy
could not wholly resist.

Pliny the Elder (a.d. 23-79) is almost the only Roman who won
renown as an investigator of the phenomena of nature. His life
was a marvellously busy one, every moment being filled with
public services, with observations, study, and writing. He seldom
walked, but rode or was carried in a litter, that he might not lose
a moment from his studies. At his meals and toilet he had a
slave read to him.

Pliny lost his life in an over-zealous pursuit of science. He was

SENECA.

SCIENCE, ETHICS, AND PHILOSOPHY. 415

in command of the Roman fleet at Misenum when occurred the
eruption of Vesuvius which resulted in the destruction of Pom-
peii and Herculaneum. Subduing the fears of his officers, who
wished to flee from the scene, Pliny employed the ships of his
fleet in rescuing the inhabitants of the coast. His vessels, while
engaged in this work, were covered with the hot ashes that dark-
ened the air and fell incessantly in heavy showers. In order to
gain a better view of the mountain, the philosopher ordered his
sailors to put him ashore ; but unfortunately he ventured too near
the volcano, and was overcome and suffocated by the sulphurous
exhalations.

The only work of Pliny that has been spared to us is his Natu-
ral History f embracing thirty-seven volumes. It is a monument
of untiring industry and extensive research. It contains 20,000
citations from more than two thousand volumes of various authors.
It was the Roman Encyclopaedia, containing all that the world then
knew respecting astronomy, geography, botany, zoology, medicine,
and the arts of painting and statuary. In this work he defends the
theory of the sphericity of the earth, and declares that it is a globe
hanging, by what means supported he knows not, in vacant space.

In connection with the name of Pliny the Elder must be men-
tioned that of his nephew, Pliny the Younger. He succeeded to
the estate, and to somewhat of the fame, of his celebrated uncle.
He was a man of letters, being a graceful writer and orator, yet
was not a naturalist like the first Pliny. He was a servile courtier,
and wrote a eulogy upon the character of the Emperor Trajan
which is filled with the most fiilsome praise. Pliny's epistles, like
the letters of Cicero, are among the most valuable of Roman
prose productions that have come down to us.

Marcus Aurelius the emperor and Epictetus the slave hold the
first places among the ethical teachers of Rome. The former
wrote his Meditations; but the latter, like Socrates, committed
nothing to writing, so that we know of the character of his teach-
ings only through one of his pupils, Arrian by name. Epictetus
was for many years a slave at the capital, but, securing in some

416 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

way his freedom, he became a teacher of philosophy. Domitian
having ordered all philosophers to leave Rome, Epictetus fled to
Epirus, where he established a school in which he taught the doc-
trines of Stoicism. His name is inseparably linked with that of
Marcus Aurelius as a teacher of the purest system of ethics that
is found outside of Christianity. Epictetus and Aurelius were the
last eminent representatives and expositors of the philosophy of
Zeno. They were the last of the Stoics. In them Stoicism bore
its consummate flower and fruit. The doctrines of the Galilean
were even then fast taking possession of the Roman world ; for,
giving more place to the affections and all the natural instincts,
they readily won the hearts of men from the cold, unsympathetic
abstractions of the Grecian sage.

Quintilian (a.d. 40-118) was the one great grammarian and
rhetorician that the Roman race produced. For about a quarter
of a century he was the most noted lecturer at Rome on educa-
tional and literary subjects. One of the booksellers of the capital,
after much persuasion, finally prevailed upon the teacher to pub-
lish his lectures. They were received with great favor, and Quin-
tilian's Institutes have never ceased to be studied and copied by
all succeeding writers on education and rhetoric.^

^ The allusions which we have made to the publishing trade suggest a word
respecting ancient publishers and books. There were in Rome several pub-
lishing houses, which, in their day, enjoyed a wide reputation and conducted
a very extended business. " Indeed, the antique book-trade," says Guhl, " was
carried on on a scale hardly surpassed by modern times, . . . The place of
the press in our literature was taken by the slaves." Through practice they
gained surprising facility as copyists, and books were multiplied with great
rapidity. And, as to the books themselves, we must bear in mind that a book
in the ancient sense was simply a roll of manuscript or parchment, and con-
tained nothing like the amount of matter held by an ordinary modern volume.
Thus Caesar's Gallic Wars, which makes a single volume of moderate size with
us, made eight Roman books. Most of the houses of the wealthy Romans
contained libraries. The collection of Sammanicus Serenus, tutor of Gordian,
numbered 62,cxx) books. There were twenty-nine public libraries in Rome
established by the emperors.

WRITERS OF THE EARLY LATIN CHURCH. 417

During the reign of Tiberius, Phsedrus, the Roman ^sop,
wrote his fables, which were, for the most part, translations or
imitations of the productions of his Grecian master. A little
later, in the reign of Titus, Frontinus wrote a valuable work on
the subject of military strategy, and a still more interesting
book on the Roman aqueducts. This latter work gives us much
interesting information respecting those stupendous structures.

Writers of the Early Latin Church. — The Christian authors
of the first three centuries, like the writers of the New Testament,
employed the Greek, that being the language of learning and
culture. Clement of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, Justin,
Origen, Eusebius, Chrysostom, and Basil are a few of the cele-
brated fathers of the early Church who used in their works the
language of Athens. Of these Chrysostom ("golden- mouthed"),
so called on account of his persuasive oratory, was perhaps the
most renowned.

But, though the Greek language was first chosen as the medium
for the dissemination of Christian doctrines, as the Latin tongue
gradually came into more general use throughout the extended
provinces of the Roman empire, the Christian authors naturally
begun to use the same in the composition of their works. Hence
almost all the writings of the fathers of the Church produced
during the last centuries of the empire were composed in Latin.
From among the many names that adorn the Church literature
of this period, we shall select only two for special mention, — St.
Jerome and St. Augustine.

Jerome (a.d. 342-420) was a native of Pannonia. He studied
at Rome and at Constantinople, and travelled through all the
provinces of the empire, from Britain to Palestine. For many
years he led a monastic life at Bethlehem. He is especially held
in memory by his translation of the Scriptures into Latin. This
version is known as the Vulgate, and is the one still used in the
Roman Catholic Church.

Aurelius Augustine (a.d. 354-430) was bom near Carthage, in
Africa. He was the most eminent writer of the Christian Church

418 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

during the later Roman period. His numerous works — sermons,
commentaries, and epistles — form a perfect library of themselves ;
but his fame rests chiefly on his Confessions and his City of God,
two of the most remarkable productions of all Christian writings.
The larger part of the Confessions is a touching narrative of the
struggles of soul that resulted in his conversion. This work is a
classic in Christian literature, and has been translated into almost
every language in which the Bible is read. The City of God is a
truly wonderful work. The author writes with the fervor of an
Isaiah, with the prophetic vision of the Exile of Patmos. The
book was written just when the Goths and Vandals were taking
possession of the empire, when Rome was becoming the spoil of
the barbarians. It was designed to answer the charge of the
Pagans that Christianity, turning the hearts of the people, away
from the worship of the ancient gods, was the cause of the calam-
ities that were befalling the Roman state. It symbolizes Rome
as the city of the world, which only presumptuously can call itself
the " Eternal City " ; while under the figure of the City of God is
portrayed the enduring nature of the Christian Church, the New
Jerusalem, the truly "Eternal City."

Roman Law and Law Literature. — Although the Latin writ-
ers in all the departments of literary effort which we have so far
reviewed did much valuable work, yet, as we have had occasion
to repeat frequently, the Roman intellect in all these directions
was under Greek guidance ; its work was imitative, and through-
out all its course unmarked by any great originaHty, boldness, or
creative energy. But in another department it was different. We
mean, of course, the field of legal and political science. Here the
Romans ceased to be pupils and became teachers. Here they
are no longer the servile imitators of the excellences of others, —
although they do not refuse helpful instruction, — but they become
creators and masters. Nations, like men, have their mission.
Rome's mission was to give laws to the world.

Our knowledge of the law-system of the Romans begins with
the legislation of the Twelve Tables, about 450 b.c. The laws en-

ROMAN LAW AND LAW LITERATURE. 419

grossed upon these tablets must be regarded as being in the main
a systemized collection of the rules and regulations that had grown
up during many preceding centuries. Throughout all the repubU-
can period the laws of the state were growing less harsh and cruel,
less invidious in their distinctions between the higher and lower
classes of the community, and were gradually effacing the marks
of their barbarous origin and becoming more liberal and scientific.
From loo B.C. to a.d. 250 lived and wrote the most famous of the
Roman jurists and law-writers, who created the most remarkable
law literature ever produced by any people. The great unvarying
principles that underlie and regulate all social and political rela-
tions were examined, illustrated, and clearly enunciated. Gains,
Ulpian, Paulus, Papinian, and Pomponius are among the most
renowned writers who, during the period just indicated, enriched
by their writings and decisions this branch of Latin literature.

In the year a.d. 527 Justinian became emperor of the Eastern
Roman Empire. He almost immediately entered upon the work
of collecting and arranging in a systematic manner the immense
mass of Roman laws and the writings of the jurists. The under-
taking was like the labor of the Twelve Tables, only infinitely
greater. Since those were set up in the Forum a thousand years
had passed. During these centuries the limits of Latium had
expanded until they embraced three continents; and over all
these regions, with their motley populations, Rome had • extended
her authority and her laws. There was no possible relation of
life that was not recognized and dealt with by the Roman govern-
ment. Men's relations to the family, to the city, to the state, to
the gods, were clearly defined and legislated upon and decreed
about by senate, emperors, and municipal magistrates. During
all these centuries, too, the best intellects of the nation had been
busy annotating and commenting upon all this growing mass of
legislation, and producing whole libraries of learned works respect-
ing the science of jurisprudence and government in general.
Bearing these things in mind, we can form some faint conception
pf the enormous amount of material of a legal character that had

420 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND LAW.

been created by the time of the subversion of the empire of the
West.

Justinian committed the task of collating, revising, condensing,
and harmonizing all this matter to the celebrated lawyer Tribo-
nian, with whom were associated during the course of the work
fourteen assistants. This commission began its labors in the year
A.D. 528, and in five years the task was completed, and given to
the world in the form of the Corpus Juris Civilis, or " Body of
the Civil Law." This consisted of three parts, — the Code, the
Pandects, and the Institutes} The Code was a revised and
compressed collection of all the laws, instructions to judicial
officers, and opinions on legal subjects, promulgated by the differ-
ent emperors since the time of Hadrian ; the Pandects (all-con-
taining) were a digest or abridgment of the writings, opinions,
and decisions of the most eminent of the old Roman jurists and
lawyers. Two thousand books of thirty-nine different authors, all
of whom lived between 100 B.C. and a.d. 250, were collected,
and from this enormous mass of manuscript were culled 9000
extracts, which contained the sum and substance of all that three
centuries and more of law-scholars had thought and written.
These excerpts were arranged under their proper titles, and filled
fifty books. This part of the Corpus Juris is by far the most
important and interesting, as it deals with the principles of legal
science, and has to do with private law, which touches the trans-
actions of every-day life, while the Code is mainly concerned with
public law. The Institutes were a condensed edition of the Pan-
dects, and were intended to form an elementary text-book for the
use of students.

When the great work was completed, copies were furnished to
all the law-schools of Constantinople, Rome, Alexandria, Berytus,
Csesarea, and other cities of the empire. It was the sole text-
book of the youth engaged in the study of the law.

1 A later work, called the Novels, comprised the laws of Justinian subse-
quent to the completion of the Code.

EDUCATION. 421

The Body of the Roman Law thus preserved and transmitted
was the great contribution of the Latin intellect to civilization.
It has exerted a profound influence upon all the legal systems of
modern Europe. During the Dark Ages its study abated ; but
early in the twelfth century there was a great revival of interest
in it in all the law-schools of Italy, especially at Bologna. As a
result of this fresh examination of the admirable system of juris-
prudence of ancient Rome, the Justinian Code became the
groundwork of the present law-system of Italy, of Southern
France, and of Germany. It also became auxiliary law in North-
ern France and in Spain, while in England the laws of our Teu-
tonic ancestors were by it greatly influenced and modified.* Thus
has Rome given laws to the nations — thus does the once little
Palatine city of the Tiber still rule the world. The religion of
Judea, the arts of Greece, and the laws of Rome are three very
real and potent elements in modem civilization.

Social Life.

Education. — Roman children were subject in an extraordinary
manner to their father {^paterfamilias) . They were regarded as
his property, and their life and liberty were in general at his abso-
lute disposal. This power he exercised by usually drowning at
birth the deformed or sickly child. Even the married son re-
mained legally subject to his father, who could banish him, sell
him as a slave, or even put him to death. It should be said,
however, that the right of putting to death was seldom exercised,
and that in the time of the empire the law put some limitations
upon it.

The education of the Roman boy differed from that of the
Greek youth in being more practical. The laws of the Twelve
Tables were committed to memory; and rhetoric and oratory
were given special attention, as a mastery of the art of public

* Hadley's Introduction to Roman Law, p. 25 et seq.

422 SOCIAL LIFE.

speaking was an almost indispensable acquirement for the Roman
citizen who aspired to take a prominent part in the affairs of
state.

After the conquest of Magna Grsecia and of Greece, the Romans
were brought into closer relations than had hitherto existed with
Greek culture. The Roman youths were taught the language of
Athens, often to the neglect, it appears, of their native tongue ;
for we hear the censor Cato complaining that the boys of his
time spoke Greek before they could use their own language.
Young men belonging to families of means not unusually went to
Greece, just as the graduates of our schools go to Europe, to finish
their education. Many of the most prominent statesmen of Rome,
as, for instance, Cicero and Julius Caesar, received the advantages
of this higher training in the schools of Greece.

Somewhere between the age of fourteen and eighteen the boy
exchanged his purple-hemmed toga, or gown, for one of white
wool, which was in all places and at all times the significant badge
of Roman citizenship and Roman equality.^

Social Position of Woman. — Until after her marriage, the
daughter of the family was kept in almost Oriental seclusion.
Marriage gave her a certain freedom. She might now be present
at the races of the circus and the various shows of the theatre and
the arena — a privilege rarely accorded to her before marriage. In
the early virtuous period of the Roman state, divorce was unusual,
but in later and more degenerate times it became very common.
The husband had the right to divorce his wife for the slightest
cause, or for no cause at all. In this disregard of the sanctity of
the family relation may doubtless be found one cause of the
degeneracy and failure of the Roman stock.

Public Amusements. — The entertainments of the theatre, the
games of the circus, and the combats of the amphitheatre were

1 With the exception of the chief magistrates and the senators, every citi-
zen, whether rich or poor, patrician or plebeian, was compelled, whenever he
appeared at the public games or at court, to wear the same white, unadorned
mantle. Thus was symbolized the equality of the citizens.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. 423

the three principal public amusements of the Romans. These
entertainments in general increased in popularity as liberty de-
clined, the great festive gatherings at the various places of amuse-
ment taking the place of the political assembhes of the republic.
The public exhibitions under the empire were, in a certain sense,
the compensation which the emperors offered the people for their
surrender of the right of participation in public affairs, and the
people were content to accept the exchange.

Tragedy was never held in high esteem at Rome : the people
saw too much real tragedy in the exhibitions of the amphitheatre
to care much for the make-believe tragedies of the stage. The
entertainments of the theatres usually took the form of comedies,
farces, and pantomimes. The last were particularly popular, both
because the vast size of the theatres made it quite impossible for
the actor to make his voice heard throughout the structure, and
for the reason that the language of signs was the only language
that could be readily understood by an audience made up of so
many different nationalities as composed a Roman assemblage.

More important and more popular than the entertainments of
the theatre were the various games, especially the chariot races, of
the circus. But surpassing in their terrible fascination all other
public amusements were the animal-baitings and the gladiatorial
combats of the arena.

The beasts required for the baitings were secured in different
parts of the world, and transported to Rome and the other cities
of the empire at an enormous expense. The wildernesses of
Northern Europe furnished bears and wolves ; Africa contributed
lions, crocodiles, and leopards ; Asia, elephants and tigers. These
creatures were pitted against one another in every conceivable
way. Often a promiscuous multitude would be turned loose in
the arena at once. But even the terrific scene that then ensued,
became at last too tame to stir the blood of the Roman populace.
Hence a new species of show was introduced, and grew rapidly
into favor with the spectators of the amphitheatre. This was the
gladiatorial comtat.

424

SOCIAL LIFE.

The Gladiatorial Combats. — Gladiatorial games seem to have
had their origin in Etruria, whence they were brought to Rome,
It was a custom among the early Etruscans to slay prisoners upon
the warrior's grave, it being thought that the spirit of the dead
delighted in the blood of such victims. In time the condemned
prisoners were allowed to fight and kill one another, this being
deemed more humane than their cold-blooded slaughter. Thus it
happened that sentiments of humanity gave rise to an institution
which, afterwards perverted, became the most inhuman of any
that ever existed among a civilized people.

The first gladiatorial spectacle at Rome was presented by. two
sons at the funeral of their father, in the year 264 b.c. This exhi-
bition was arranged in one of the forums, as there were at that

time no amphitheatres in
existence. From this time
the public taste for this
species of entertainment
grew rapidly, and by the
beginning of the imperial
period had mounted into
a perfect passion. It was
now no longer the manes of
the dead, but the spirits
of the living, that they were
intended to appease. At
first the combatants were slaves, captives, or condemned criminals ;
but at last knights, senators, and even women descended into the
arena. Training-schools were established at Rome, Capua, Ra-
venna, and other cities. Free citizens often sold themselves to the
keepers of these seminaries ; and to them flocked desperate men
of all classes, and ruined spendthrifts of the noblest patrician
houses. Slaves and criminals were encouraged to become pro-
ficient in this art by the promise of freedom if they survived the
combats beyond a certain number of years.

Sometimes the gladiators fought in pairs ; again, great compa-

GLADIATORS. (After an ancient Mosaic.)

THE GLADIATORIAL COMBATS. 425

nies engaged at once in the deadly fray. They fought in chariots,
on horseback, on foot — in all the ways that soldiers were accus-
tomed to fight in actual battle. The contestants were armed with
lances, swords, daggers, tridents, and every manner of weapon.
Some were provided with nets and lassos, with which they entan-
gled their adversaries, and then slew them.

The life of a wounded gladiator was in the hands of the audi-
ence. If in response to his appeal for mercy, which was made by
outstretching the forefinger, the spectators reached out their hands
with thumbs extended, that indicated that his prayer had been
heard and that the sword was to be sheathed ; but if they ex-
tended their hands with thumbs turned in, that was the signal for
the victor to complete his work upon his wounded foe. Some-
times the dying were aroused and forced on to the fight by burn-
ing with a hot iron. The dead bodies were dragged from the
arena with hooks, like the carcasses of animals, and the pools of
blood soaked up with dry sand.

These shows increased to such an extent that they entirely over-
shadowed the entertainments of the circus and the theatre. Am-
bitious officials and commanders arranged such spectacles in order
to curry favor with the masses ; magistrates were expected to give
them in connection with the public festivals ; the heads of aspiring
families exhibited them " in order to acquire social position " ;
wealthy citizens prepared them as an indispensable feature of a
fashionable banquet ; the children caught the spirit of their elders
and imitated them in their plays. The demand for gladiators was
met by the training-schools : the managers of these hired out
bands of trained men, that travelled through the country like opera
troupes among us, and gave exhibitions in private houses or in the
provincial amphitheatres.

The rivalries between ambitious leaders during the later years
of the republic tended greatly to increase the number of gladiato-
rial shows, as liberality in arranging these spectacles was a sure
passport to popular favor. It was reserved for the emperors, how-
ever, to exhibit them on a truly imperial scale. Titus, upon the

426 Social life.

dedication of the Flavian Amphitheatre, provided games, mostly
gladiatorial combats, that lasted one hundred days. Trajan cele-
brated his victories with shows that continued still longer, in the
progress of which 10,000 gladiators fought upon the arena, and
more than 10,000 wild beasts were slain. (For the suppression
of the gladiatorial games, see p. 368.)

State Distribution of Corn.— The free distribution of corn at
Rome has been characterized as the " leading fact of Roman life."
It will be recalled that this pernicious practice had its beginnings
in the legislation of Gaius Gracchus (see p. 287). Just before the
establishment of the empire, over 300,000 Roman citizens were
recipients of this state bounty. In the time of the Antonines the
number is asserted to have been even larger. The corn for this
enormous distribution was derived in large part from a grain tribute
exacted of the African and other corn-producing provinces. The
evils that resulted from this misdirected state charity can hardly
be overstated. Idleness and all its accompanying vices were fos-
tered to such a degree that we probably shall not be wrong in
enumerating the practice as one of the most prominent causes of
the demoralization .of society at Rome under the emperors.

Slavery. — A still more demoralizing element in Roman life
than that of the state largesses of corn, was the institution of
slavery. The number of slaves in the Roman state under the
later, republic and the earlier empire was probably as great or
even greater than the number of freemen. The love of ostenta-
tion led to the multiplication of offices in the households of the
wealthy, and the employment of a special slave for every different
kind of work. Thus there was the slave called the sandalio, whose
sole duty it was to care for his master's sandals ; and another,
called the nomenclator, whose exclusive business it was to accom-
pany his master when he went upon the street, and give him the
names of such persons as he ought to recognize. The price of
slaves varied from a few dollars to ten or twenty thousand dollars,
— these last figures being of course exceptional. Greek slaves

^lAVERV. 427

were the most valuable, as their lively intelligence rendered them
serviceable in positions calling for special talent.

The slave class was recruited chiefly, as in Greece, by war, and
by the practice of liidnapping. Some of the outlying provinces
in Asia and Africa were almost depopulated by the slave-hunters.
Delinquent tax-payers were often sold as slaves, and frequendy
poor persons sold themselves into servitude.

Slaves were treated better under the empire than under the later
republic — a change to be attributed doubtless to the humanizing
influence of the Stoical philosophy and of Christianity. The
feeling entertained towards this unfortunate class in the later
republican period is illustrated by Varro's classification of slaves
as " vocal agricultural implements," and again by Cato the Elder's
recommendation that old and worn-out slaves be sold, as a matter
of economy. Sick and hopelessly infirm slaves were taken to an
island in the Tiber and left there to die of starvation and exposure.
In many cases, as a measure of precaution, the slaves were forced
to work in chains, and to sleep in subterranean prisons. Their
bitter hatred towards their masters, engendered by harsh treat-
ment, is witnessed by the well-known proverb, " As many enemies
as slaves," and by the servile revolts and wars of the republican
period. But from the first century of the empire there is observ-
able a growing sentiment of humanity towards the bondsman.
Imperial edicts take away from the master the right to kill his
slave, or to sell him to the trader in gladiators, or even to treat
him with any undue severity. This marks the beginning of a slow
reform which in the course of ten or twelve centuries resulted in
the complete abolition of slavery in Christian Europe.

INDEX

PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

Note. — In the case of words whose correct pronunciation has not seemed clearly indicated
by their accentuation and syllabication, the sounds of the letters have been denoted thus :
a, like a in gray ; a, like a in have; a, like a in far ; e, like ee in feet; 6, like e in ^nd; e
and €h, like k; 9, like s; g, like j; s, like z.

HISTORY OF GREECE.

Academy, the, 81.

A-ehae'ans, the, 5, 6, 18, 19.

Achaean, League, 129.

Achaia (a-ka'ya), i, 18.

A-ehil'les, 16, 29, note.

A-crop'o-lis, Athenian, 138.

Adrastus, 14, 15.

^-gi'na, 85.

^'gos-pot'a-mi, capture of Athenian

fleet at, 99.
JE-ne'as, 17.
iE-o'U-ans, the, 6, 19,
yE'o-lus, 25.
^s'ehi-nes, 173.
yEs'chy-lus, 162.
^s'cu-la'pi-us, 193, note,
^-to'li-an League, 129.
Ag'a-mem'non, 1$.
Ag'es-san'der, 149.
A-ges'i-la'us, 103, 104.
Ag'o-ra, the, 20.
Ag'ri-gen'tum, 39.
Al-cae'us, 158.
Al'ci-bi'a-des, 96, 97, 98, 99.

Ale'mae-on'i-dse, first banishment
from Athens, 51, 52; second
banishment, 55 ; contract to re-
build the Delphian temple, 54, 55.

Alexander the Great, 1 10, 119.

Alexandria, founding of, 113; under
the Ptolemies, 126, 127.

Alexandrian Literature, 173, 175.
Museum and Library,
126, 127.

Am'mon, Zeus, 114.

Am'phi-a-ra'us, 14.

Am-phic'ty-on'ic Council, the, 32,

33.
A-na'cre-on, 159.
An'axag'o-ras, 179.
A-nax'i-raan'der, 177.
An'ax-im'e-nes, 177.
An-tal'^i-das, Peace of, 102.
Aj|tioch, 124.
An-ti'o-chusIV., E-piph'a-nes, 125;

IIL, the Great, 125.
An-tip'a-ter, 128.
An'ti-phon, 171, 'note.
A-pel'les, 152.
Aph'ro-di'te, 25.

429

430

INDEX AND PRONOUNCINC VOCABULARY.

A-pol'lo, 24 ; oracles of, 27, 28.

Ar-be'la, battle of, 1 14.

Arcadia, I, 2.

Ar'chi-me'des, 191.

Architecture, Grecian, 132, 143.
Pelasgian, 133.

Architecture, orders of, 134.

Archons, the, 50.

A're-op'a-gus, court of the, 52, 53,
83, note.

A'res, 24.

Ar'go-lis, southern part of, conquer-
ed by Sparta, 48.

Argonauts, 13.

Argos, 40, 47.

Ar-is-tar'ehus, 192,

Ar'is-ti'des, the Just, 64, 77, 79.

Ar'is-toph'a-nes, 166.

Ar'is-tot'le, 184, 186, 194; views
respecting slavery, 205.

Ar-me'ni-a, I02.

Ar'ta-ba'nus, 168.

Ar'ta-pher'nes, 60.

Artaxerxes (ar'tax-erx'es), 102, 103.

Ar'te-mis, 25.

Ar'te-mis'i-a, 140,

Ar-te-mis'i-um, battle of, 70, 71.

As-pa'si-a, 1 98.

A-the'na, 24.

Athens, early growth of, 48-58 ;
site of, 49 ; kings of, 49 ; aids
Ionian cities of Asia Minor against
Darius, 59 ; prepares for Persian
vengeance, dT^ ; abandoned in
Persian War, 71 ; rebuilding <fcf,
74-76 ; her Long Walls, 84, note ;
pestilence at, 93 ; under the
Council of Four Hundred, 99 ;
condition at end of Peloponnesiaii
War, 100; under the Thirty
Tyrants, loi.

Athenian constitution, i-eformed by

Solon, 52 ; by Cleisthenes, 55,

56.
Athenian supremacy, 74-90.
Athenian Empire, strength and

vi^eakness of, 88-90.
A-then'o-do'rus, 149.
A'thos, 59, 65.
A'tre-us, treasury of, 133.
At'ta-lus III., 125, note.
At'ti-ca, 12; population of, 48, 49 ;

townships of, 49, note, 56, 204 ;

state of, at time of Peloponnesian

War, 203.
Au-re'li-us, Marcus, 187.

B.
Bactria, 115, 116, note.
Be-ro'sus, 174.
Boe-o'ti-a, i.
Bras'i-das, 95.
Bren'nus, 128.
By-zan'ti-um, 109.

c.

Cad'mus, 7.
Cal'ehas, 27, note.
Cambunian Mountains, 2.
Car-ma'ni-a, 117.
Cas-san'der, 123.
(^e'crops, 7.
(^e-cro'pi-a, 7.
(^er'be-rus, 26.

■€haer'o-ne'a, battle of, 1 10. *
•€hal-9id'i-9i, 108.
■eiial'9is, 58.
■Cha'res, 149.
■€ha-ryb'dis, 26.
■Ghi-mae'ra, the, 26.
•€hi'os, 2.
■€ho-ra'gus, 201.

•Christianity and Neo-Platonism,
189, 190.

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

431

■CJhronology, Grecian, 121.

of the Seleucidae, 131.
of the Ptolemies, 131.
^imon, 81, 82.
Cla-zom'e-nae, 103.
Cleis'the-nes, reforms of, 55, 56.
Cle-om'e-nes, 58, 147.
Cleomenic War, 129, note.
Cle'on, 94, 95, 96.
Cle'o-pa'tra, 128.
Cli'tus, 116.
Clyt'em-nes'tra, 17.
Co'drus, 49.

Colonies, Greek, 38, 39.
Co-Ios'sus at Rhodes, 149.
Cor-gy'ra, 3.
Corey raeans, 91.
Corinth, Isthmus of, i.
Corinth, Congress at, 65-67.
Corinthian War, 103.

Co-rce'bus, 30.

Cor'o-ne'a, battle of, 86.

Cos-mog'raphy of the Greeks, 23.

Crete, 3.

Cro'ton, 38.

Cryp'ti-a, 46.

Cu-nax'a, battle of, 102.

gyc'la-dfe, the, 2.

(^y'lon, rebellion of, 51.

^yn'ics, the, 187.

gy-re'ne, 44.

(^yrus the Younger, 102.

Cythera (si-thee'ra), island of, 3.

D.
Da'mon, 199.
Da-na'us, 7.
Darius I., 59, 61.

III., 113, 114.
Da'tis, Persian general, 60.
De9'e-le'a, 98.
De'li-um, battle of, 95.

Delos, Island of, 2.

Delos, Confederacy of, 78, 79 ;

converted into an empire by the

Athenians, 79-81.
Delphi, oracle of, i, 28, 55, 71.
Delphian temple, 54, 137.
De-me'ter, 25.
De-moc'ri-tus, 180.
De-mos'the-nes, the general, 95, 97,

note, 98.
Demosthenes, the orator, 110, 128,

171.
Di-a'na, temple of, at Ephesus, 135.
Dicasteries, 83, note.
Di'o-do'rus Sic'u-lus, 175.
Di-og'e-nes, 187.

Di'o-nys'i-us, tyrant of Syracuse, 183.
Di'o-ny'sus, 25, 160 ; theatre of, at

Athens, 143.
Divination among the Greeks, 27.
Do-do'na, oracle at, 28.
Dorians, the, 19, 36.
Dorian invasion of the Peloponnesus,

17-
Do-ris'cus, plain of, 68.
Draco, laws of, 52, 53.
Dragon, the, 26.
Drama, the Greek, 160, 167.

Education among the Greeks, 195-

197.
Elgin (ei-gin), Lord, 140, note.
Elysium (e-lizh'i-um), 24, 29.
Em-ped'o-cles, 180.
E-pam'i-non'das, 104, 105.
Eph'i-al'tes, 83, note.
Eph'ors, 43.
Ep'ic-te'tus, 187.
Ep'i-cu'rus, 188.
E-pig'o-ni, War of the, 15.

432

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY,

E-pi'rus, I.
E-re'tri-a, 59, 60.
Er'a-tos'the-nes, 192.
E'ros, 25.
Eu'clid, 191.
Eu-bce'a, island of, 2.
Eu'me-nes II., 125.
Eu-men'i-des, 25.
Eu-rip'i-des, 164.
Eu-rym'e-don, battle of the, 81,

Fates, the, 25.
Furies, the, 25, 26.

G.

Ga-la'ti-a, 128.

Ga-le'nus, 194.

Games, sacred, of the Greeks, 30 ;
influence of, 31.

Gauls, the, 128. ■

Ge-dro'si-a, 1 1 7.

Ge'lon, tyrant of Syracuse, 65.

Gor'di-um, 112.

Gordius, 112.

Gor'gi-as, 180.

Gor'gons, 25.

Grgeco-Persian War, 59-73.

Gra-ni'cus, battle of the, 112.

Grecian migrations to Asia Minor, 19.

Greece, divisions of, I ; mountains
of, 2 ; islands about, 2 ; influence
of country upon inhabitants, 3.

Greeks, genius of the, 8 ; local pa-
triotism of, 8 ; their legends and
myths, I1-19 ; society in the
Heroic Age, 20-22 ; religion of
the, 23-34 ; their colonies, 38,
39 ; social life of the, 195-206 ;
friendship among, 198 ; occupa-
tions among, 202.

Gy-lip'pus, 98.

H.

Ha'des, realm of, 23 ; the god, 25.

Hal'i-car-nas'sus, mausoleum of, 140.

Harpies, the, 25, 26.

He'be, 25.

Hector, 16.

Hel'i-con, Mount, 2.

Hellas, the name, 3.

Ilel'len-ism, meaning of term, 107,

note.
Hel-le'nes, the, 5-7. (See Greeks.)
Hellespontine bridges, 65, 67.
Hel'les-pont, passage of, by Xerxes,

67.
He'lots, the, 40, 41, note, 46, 82.
He-tai'rse, the, 198, 199.
He-phaes'tus, 23, 24, 26.
He'ra, 24.
Her'a-cles, 11, 12.
Her'a-cli'dse, returning of the, 17,

18.
Her'a-cli'tus, 177.
Her'mes, 24; statues of, at Athens,

mutilated, 97, note.
He-rod'o-tus, 59, 167.
He-ros'tra-tus, 135.
He'si-od, 158,

Hes-per'i-des, garden of the, 24.
Hestia, 25.

Him'e-ra, battle of, 72, note.
Hip-par'chus, 54, 192.
Hip'pi-as, 54, 55, 58, 60. •
Hip-poc'ra-tes, 193.
Homer, 156.
Hy-met'tus, Mount, 2.
Hy-pa'ti-a, 190.

I.

Ic-ti'nus, 138.
Il'i-ad, the, 155, 157.
Il'i-os, 15.

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

433

In-fant'i-cide among the Greeks,

195, note.
Ionian Confederacy, 19.
Ionian islands, 3.
lonians, the, 5, 6, 19.
Ionian cities in Asia Minor, 59.
Ip'sus, battle of, 123.
I'ris, 25.

I-sae'us, 171, note.
I-sag'o-ras, 58.
I-soc'ra-tes, 171, note.
Is'sus, battle of, 113.
Ith'a-ca, 3.
I-tho'me, Mount, 105.

J-

Jealousy, divine, Greek doctrine of,

33-
Julian, the Apostate, 190.

K.

Kleruchies, 38, 58.
Kre'on, king of Thebes, 15.

L.

Lag-e-dae'mon, 40.

La-co'ni-a, 2.

Laius (la-yus), 13.

Lara'a-chus, 97, note.

La'mi-an War, 128.

La-oc'o-on group, 150.

Lau'ri-um, 205.

Le-on'i-cTas, 69, 70.

Lesbos, island of, 2, 19.

Leuc'tra, battle of, 104.

Literature, Greek, 154-175.

Long Walls, the, of Athens, 84,

note, 85 J destruction of, loO.
Ly-ce'um, the, 54.
• Ly-cur'gus, 41, 42.
Ly-san'der, 99.
Lys'i-as, 171, note.

Ly-sic'ra-tes, choragic monument of,

143-
Ly-sim'a-chus, 123.
Ly-sip'pus, 149.

M.

Mac'ca-bees, the, 125.

Mac'e-do'ni-an supremacy, 107-120.

Mac'e-do'ni-a, population of, 107 ;
under Philip II., 108-110; after
the death of Alexander, 128.

Mag-ne'si-a, battle of, 125.

Magna Grsecia, 38.

Mardonius, 59.

Mas-sa'li-a, 39.

Man'e-tho, 1 74,

Man'ti-ne'a, battle of, 105.

Mar'a-thon, battle of, 60, 62.

Mau-so'lus, 140.

Meg'a-cles, 51.

Meg'a-lop'o-lis, 105.

Me-nan'der, 167, note.

Men'e-la'us, 15.

Mes-se'na, 48.

Mes-se'ne, 105.

Mes-se'ni-a, 47.

Mes-se'ni-an Wars, 47.

Mi'das, 112.

Mi-le'tus, 39, 59.

Mil-ti'a-des, 60, 61, 62.

Mi'no.s, II, 13.

Min'o-taur, the, 12.

Mith-ri-da'tes the Great, 122, note.

Muses, the, 25.

Myc'a-Ie, battle of, 72.

Myt'i-le'ne, revolt of, 94.

N.

Nau'cra-tis, 39.

Nax'os, 80.

Ne-ar'chus, 117.

Nem'e-sis, 25, doctrine of, 161.

434

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

Ne'o-Pla'to-nists, the, 189, 190.
Nestor, 16.

Ni9'i-as, Peace of, 95.
Nicias, 97, note, 98, note.
Ni'o-be, the, group, 147.
Nymphs, the, 25.

o.

O-dys'seus, 16, 17, 155.
Od'ys-sey, the, 155-157.
CEd'i-pus, King, 14.
Olympian Council, 24.

Games, 30, 31.
Olympus, Mount, 2.
0-lyn'thi-an Confederacy, 108.
O-lyn'thus, 108.
Oracles, Greek, 27-29.
Os'sa, Mount, 2.
Os'tra-cism, 56, 57.

P.

Painting, Greek, 150-153.

Pan-do'ra, myth of, 197.

Paris, son of Priam, 15.

Pa'ros, 62.

Parrhasius (par-ra'shi-us), 151.

Par'the-non, treasures of the, 136,

note ; description of, 138.
Parthia, 125, note.
Par-nas'sus, Mount, 2.
Pa-tro'clus, 16.
Pau-sa'ni-as, 78, note, 193.
Pelasgians, the 4, 5.
Pelasgian architecture, 133,
Pe'li-on, Mount, 2.
Pe'lops, 7,
Pe-lop'i-das, 104,
Pel'o-pon-ne'sus, the divisions of, i ;

invaded by the Dorians, 17.
Peloponnesian (-zhan) War, the, 91-

loi.
Pe-nel'o-pe, 17, 21,

Pen-tel'i-cus, Mount, 2.
Per-dic'cas, 122, note.
Pe'fi-an'der, 37.
Per'i-cles, fosters the naval power of

Athens, 84 ; his social policy, 87 ;

his death, 93 : as an orator, 171,
Pericles, the Age of, 83, 90.

Peace of, 86.
Per'i-oe'9i, the, 40.
Per'ga-mus, 125, note.
Per-sep'o-lis, 115.
Pha'lanx, the, 108, note.
Pha-le'rum, 85.

Pha'ros, the, at Alexandria, 126.
Phi'di-as, 138, 145, 147.
Phi-dip'pi-des, 60.
Philip II., king of Macedonia, 108.

1 10.
Phi-lip-pi, 109, note.
Phi'lo, 189.
Phocians, 109, 137.
Pho'cis, I.
Pindar, 159.
Piracy in Greece, 22.
Pis'is-trat'i-dae, 37, 54, 55.
Pi-sis'tra-tus, 54, 55.
Pla-tse'a, 92, 94, 95.
Pla-tas'a, battle of, 72.
Plato, 183.
Plo-ti'nus, 189.
Plu'tarch, 175.
Po-lyb'i-us, 174.
Po-lyc'ra-tes, 37, note.
Pol'y-cle-tus, 147.
Pol-y-do'rus, 149.
Po-lyx'e-na, 151, note.
Pontus, 122, note.
Po'rus, 116.

Poseidon (po-si'don), 24. *

Pot'i-dge'a, 91.
Prax-it'e-les, 147,

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

435

Pri-e'ne, 136, note.

Prod'i-cus, 180.

Prop'y-Iae'a, the, of the Acropolis

at Athens, 87.
Pro-tag'o-ras, 180.
Pro-tog'e-nes, 152.
Ptol'e-mies, kingdom of the, 126-128.
Ptolemy, Claudius, 193.

Euergetes, 127.

Philadelphus, 127.

Soter, 126.
Py'los, 95.
Py-thag'o-ras, 178.
Pyr'rho, 188, 189.
Pyth'i-as, 199.
Pyth'i-an games, 33.

Rhe'gi-um, 48.

Rhodes, 2, 3, 122, note ; Colossus
at, 149.

s.

Sacred War, First, 32.

Second, 109.
Sages, the Seven, 176.
Sal'a-mis, battle of, 72.
Sa'mos, 2, 3.
Sappho (saf'fo), 158.
Sar'dis, 59.
Sco'pas, 140, 147.
Scyl'la, 26.
Sel'eu-ci'a, 124.
Se-leu'cus Ni-ca'tor, 123, 124.
Se-leu'ci-dse, kingdom of the, 123-

125.
Sep'tu-a-gint, the, 174.
Si-gil'i-an Expedition, the, 96-98.
Si-mon'i-des of ^eos, 159.
Siwah (see'wa), 1 14.
Skeptics, the, 188.
Slavery in Greece, 204.

Soc'ra-tes, loi, 181, 183.

Sog'di-a'na, 115, 116.

So'lon, laws of, 52, 53 ; tablets of
his laws, %T„ note.

Sophists, the, 180.

Soph'o-cles, 164.

Sos'i-cles, 58.

Sparta, the early growth of, 39-48 ;

earthquake at, 82.
Spartan constitution, 43, 44 ; lands
and money, 44 ; public tables,
45 ; education, 45, 46.
Spartans, the, 40. (See Sparta.)
Sphac-te'ri-a, 95.
Spor'a-des, the, 2.
Sta-gi'ra, 185.
Stoics, the, 186-188.
Stra'bo, 193.
Stra-te'gi, 57.
Su'ni-um, 136, note.
Susa, 115.
Syb'a-ris, 38.
Sym-po'si-a, 201.
Syracuse, 39, 97.
Syria, kingdom of, 123, 125.

T.

Ta-ren'tum, 38.

Tar'ta-rus, 23.

Te'ge-a, 48.

Tempe, Vale of, i.

Tha'les, 177.

Theatres, Greek, 142, 199.

Thebes, in Greece, 1 3 ; supremacy
of, 104-106; destroyed by Alex-
ander the Great, 112.

The-mis'to-cles, in Persian War, 63,
64, 65, 66 ; as an envoy, 75 ;
naval policy of, 76 ; character of,
77 ; as an orator, 171.

Ther-mop'y-lse, battle of, 69.

The-oc'ri-tus, 174.

436

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

Theseum, temple of, 8i.

The'seus, li, 15, 49. 81.

Thes'sa-ly, I.

Thirty. Years' Truce, 86.

Thrace, kingdom of, 123.

Thrace, partly conquered by Philip

II., 109.
Thucydides (thu-sid'i-d^z), 169.
Ti'mon, 97.
Ti-re'si-as, 27, note.
Ti'ryns, 134.

Trojan War, 15-17, 19, note.
Troy (see Ilios).
Tyrants, Greek, 36, 37.
Tyre, siege of, by Alexander, 113.
Tyr-tse'us, 47.

W.

Wolf, views of, on Homeric poems,

157-
Woman, social position of, among

the Greeks, 197.

X.

Xan-thip'pe, 182.
Xen'o-phon, 102, 170.
Xerxes (zerks'ez) I., prepares to
invade Greece, 64, 65.

Ze'no, 187.

Zeus, 24, oracles of, 27, 28.

Zeuxis (zuks'iss).

HISTORY OF ROME.

A.

Ac'ti-um, battle of, 322,
A'dri-an-o'ple, battle of, 366.
.^-ga'tian Islands, naval battle near,

257-
^'mil-i-a'nus Scipio, 281, 282.
^'-ne'as, 223.
.^'qui-ans, 231.
A-e'ti-us, Roman general, 374.
A-gric'o-la, 338.
Agriculture, state of, in Italy, 284-

286 ; in Sicily, 283.
A-grip'pa, M., 381.
Ag'rip-pi'na, 335.
Aix - la - Chapelle (aks - la-sha - pdl'),

390.
A-la'ni, 373.

Al'a-ric, 367, 370, 371, 372.
Alba Longa, 209, 210, 223.
Al'e-man'ni, 363.
A-le'si-a, 309.
Al'li-a, battle of the, 238.
Alps, Hannibal's passage of, 264.
Amphitheatres, Roman, 383, 384 ;

shows of, 425.
A-mu'li-us, 223, 224.
An'cus Mar'ci-us, 212.
Andalusia (iin-da-loo-the'a), 373.
An'dro-ni'cus, L., 399.
A'ni-o, river, 388.
Antioch, city of, 327.
An-ti'o-chus the Great, 276.
An'to-ni'nus Pi'us, Roman emperor,

345-
Antony, Mark, his oration at Caesar's
fiineral, 317; usurpations of, 318;
revels with Cleopatra, 321 ; flees

from Actium, 322 ; his death,

323-
Appian Way, 386.
Ap'pi-us Clau'di-us Cas'cus, 246.
Ap'pi-us Clau'di-us, the decemvir,

234-

A-pu'li-a, 207.

A'quae Sex'ti-ae, battle of, 290, note.

Aqueducts, Roman, 388.

Ar-ca'di-us, Eastern Roman em-
peror, 366, 367.

Ar'chi-me'des, 270.

Architecture, Roman, 380-394.

A-rim'i-num, 385.

Ar-min'i-us, 328.

Ar'no, river, 208.

Ar-ver'ni, 309.

As-ca'ni-us, 223.

At'ti-Ia, 374, 375.

Au'fi-dus, river, 208.

Augurs, college of, at Rome, 219.

Au'gus-tine, Au-re'li-us, 417.

Au-gus'tu-Ius, last Roman emperor,
in the West, 377.

Au-re'li-an, Roman emperor, 356.

Au-re'li-us, Marcus, Roman em-
peror, 346, 348, 416.

Av'entine, the, 214.

B.

Ba'den-Ba'den, 390.

Bai'ae (ba'ye), 335.

Ba-sil, 417.

Ben'e-ven'tum, battle of, 246.

Ber'nard, St., Pass of Little, 264.

Bes'ti-a, consul, 288.

Bib'u-lus, 313.

437

438

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

Bo'i-i, 259,

Bren'nus, 239.

Britain invaded by Caesar, 307, 309;
conquered by Claudius, 334 ; in-
vaded by the Angles and Saxons,

373-
Brun-di'si-um, 312.
Brut'ti-um, 207.
Brutus, L. Junius, 227.
Brutus, the liberator, 317, 320.
Bur-gun'di-ans, 373.
Bur'rhus, 335.
Bu'sen-ti'nus, river, 373.
By-zan'ti-um 360, 361.

c.

Caesar, Augustus (see Octavius).

Csesar, Gains (see Caligula).

Caesar, Julius, proscribed by Sulla,
297 ; early life, 305 ; debts, 306 ;
forms the First Triumvirate, 307 '■>
his campaigns in Gaul and Britain,
307; crosses the Rubicon, 311 ;
becomes master of Italy, 312 ;
defeats Pompey at Pharsalus, 313;
in Egypt, 314 ; defeats Phar-
naces, 314 ; crushes Pompeians
at Thapsus, 314 ; his triumph,
314; his genius as a statesman,
315; his death, 316; literary
works, 411.

Cse-sa'ri-on, 322.

Ca-la'bri-a, 207.

Ca-lig'u-la, 333.

Ca-mil'lus, 239.

Cam-pa'ni-a, 207.

Can'nae, battle of, 268.

Can'u-le'i-us, Ga'i-us, 233, note.

Canuleian Law, 233, note.

Cap'i-tol-Ine hill, 215.

Capitoline temple, 214, 380, note.

Ca'pre-se, island of, 332.

Cap'u-a, 271.

Car'a-cal'la, Roman emperor, 353.

Ca-rac'ta-cus, 335.

Carthage, 248 ; empire of, 248 ;
compared with Rome, 249 ; de-
stroyed by Romans, 281 ; rebuilt
by Julius Caesar, 315 ; made capi-
tal of Vandal empire, 373.

Carthage, New, in Spain, 261.

Cas'si-us, the liberator, 320.

Catacombs, Roman, 358.

Cat'i-line, 304, 305.

Cato, M. P. Uticensis, 314.

Cato, the Censor, 279.

Ca-tul'lus, 402.

Cat'u-lus, 290.

Cel'ti-be'ri-ans, 282.

Censors, Roman, 236.

Cer-ci'na, island of, 295.

Chalons (sha'lon), battle of, 374.

Charlemagne (shar'le-man), 390.

Chinese Wall, 364, note.

Christ, birth of, 328 ; crucifixion of,

332.
Christian Fathers, the, 417.
Christians, persecutions of, 336,

343> 346, 347, 358.

Christianity, under Constantine,
359, 361 ; under Julian the Apos-
tate, 362 ; under Jovian, 363 ;
conversion to, of the Goths, 364 ;
effects upon, of the fall of Rome,
372 ; Christianity and the gladia-
torial combats, 368 : in the pro-
vinces, 343.

■€hrys'os-tom, 417.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 301, 305,
319 ; his works, 410.

Cim'bri, 289.

Cin'cin-na'tus, 231.

Cin'e-as, 245.

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

439

Cin'na, 295.

Cir-ce'i-i (se'y), 294.

Cir-cen'sian games, 221.

Cir'cus Max'i-mus, 214, 381.

Civil war, between Caesar and Pom-

pey, 312; between Marius and

Sulla, 293.
Claudian aqueduct, 388.
Claudius, Roman emperor, 334.
Clement, of Rome, 417.

of Alexandria, 417.
Cle'o-pa'tra, 314, 321, 322, 323.
■eio-a'ca Maxima, 213.
•Co'cles, Ho-ra'ti-us, 225.
Col'la-ti'nus, Tar-quin'i-us, 227.
Colonies, Roman, 247, note.

Latin, 247, note.
Col'os-se'um, 339, 384.
■eo-mi'ti-a centuriata, 215.
curiata, 211.
tributa, 231, note.
Co-mi'ti-um, the. 213.
Com'mo-dus, Roman emperor, 350.
Constantine II., 361.
Constantinethe Great, 359, 361.
Constantinople, city of, 361.
Con-stan'ti-us I., 359, H-, S^i, 362.
Consuls, Roman, first, 227.
Cor'fin'i-um, 292.
Corinth, destruction of, 277.
Co'ri-o-la'nus, 230.
Com, free distribution of, at Rome,

227.
Cor-ne'li-a, mother of the Gracchi,

287.
Cor'pus Ju'ris Ci-vilis, 420-421.
Co/si-ca, 258.

Council, first, of Church, 360.
Cras'sus, M. L., 306, 309.
Cre-mo'na, 260.
Cu'ri-se, 21a

Cu'ri-a'ti-i, 225.
Cu'ri-o, 313, 382.
Cyn'os-ceph'a-lse, battle of, 275.

D.

Decemvirs, first board, 232 ; second,

234-
De'ci-us, Roman emperor, 355.
Dictator, office of, 227, note.
Di'o-cle'ti-an, Roman emperor, 357,

359-
Do-mi'ti-an, Roman emperor, 340.
Drama, the, among the Romans,

398-401.
Drep'a-na, defeat of Romans at,

255-
Dru'sus, 292.
Du-il'li-us, C, 252.
Dyr-ra'chi-um, 313.

E.

Eastern Roman Empire, 367.
Ec-no'mus, naval battle of, 253,

note.
E-des'sa, 355, note.
Education among the Romans, 421.
El'a-gab'a-lus, 354.
En'ni-us, 400.
Ep'ic-te'tus, 416.
E-tru'ri-a, 207.
E-trus'cans, 209.
Eu-dox'i-a, 376.
Eu'me-nes, 277.

Fa'bi-us Quintus, 262.

Fa'bi-us, the delayer, 266.

Fa-bric'i-us, 246.

Fas'ces, 227.

Flam'i-ni'nus, consul, 275, 276.

Forum, Roman, 213.

Fron-ti'nus, 417.

440

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

G.

Galba, Roman emperor, 337.

Ga-le'ri-us, Roman emperor, 359.

Gal'li-a Cis'al-pi'na, 207.

Gallic wars, 307-309.

Gauls settle in Italy, 209, sack
Rome, 237 ; war with, 259 ;
conquered by Caesar, 307.

Gen'ser-ic (Geiseric), king of the
Vandals, 376.

Ger-man'i-cus, 330.

Ge'ta, Roman emperor, 353.

Gladiatorial combats, 424 ; suppres-
sion of, 368.

Gladiators, war of the, 299.

Golden house of Nero, 337, 391.

Gor'dian, Roman emperor, 355.

Goths, cross the Danube, 364. (See
Alaric. )

Grac'chi, reforms of, 286.

Gracchus, Gains, 287.

Tiberius, 286.

Gra'ti-an, Roman emperor, 364,
365, 366.

Great fire at Rome, 336.

H.

Ha'dri-an, Roman emperor, 343,

345-

Hadrian's Mole, 345.

Ha-mil'car, 256, 260, 261.

Han'ni-bal, his vow, 261 ; attacks
Saguntum, 261 ; crosses the Pyr-
enees, 264 ; crosses the Alps, 264 ;
his policy in Italy, 265 ; at Capua,
270; before Rome, 271 ; de-
feated at Za'ma, 274 ; his death,
278.

Han'no, Carthaginian admiral, 257.

Ha-rus'pi-ces, art of the, 219.

Has'dru-bal, Hannibal's brother,
271, 272, 273.

Has'dru-bal, son-in-law of Hamil-

car, 261.
Hel-ve'tians, 308.
Her'a-cle'a, battle of, 245.
Heralds, college of, at Rome, 220.
Her'cu-la'ne-um, 340.
Hgr'mann (see Armintus).
Her'u-li, 377.

Hi'e-ro, king of Syracuse, 251, 270.
Ho-no'ri-us, Roman emperor, 366,

368, 370.
Horace, 406.
Ho-ra'ti-i, the, 225.
Hor-ten'si-us, 409.
Hun-ga'ri-ans, 375, note.
Huns, 364, 374, 375.

I.

I'a-pyg'i-ans, 209, note.
Il-lyr'i-an corsairs, 259.
Italians, 209.

Italy, divisions of, 207 ; early in-
habitants of, 209.

Ja-nic'u-lum, the, 226.
Ja'nus, Temple of, 218.
Jerome, 417.

Jerusalem, 303, 338, 345.
Jovian, Roman emperor, 363.
Ju-gur'tha, war with, 287.
Julian the Apostate, 362.
Ju-li-a'nus, Did'i-us, 352.
Juno, 217.
Jupiter, 217.

Jus-tin'i-an, emperor, 419, 420.
Justin Martyr, 347.
Ju've-nal, 408.

L.
Lab'a-rum, the, 360, note.
Latin cities, revolt of, 243.
colonies, note 247.

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

441

language, spread of, 397 ; used
by early Christian writers, 418.
Latins, 209.
La-ti'nus, King, 223.
La'ti-um, 207, 209.
La-vin'i-a, 223.
La-vin'i-um, 223.
Lep'i-dus, 318, 319, 320.
Lib'y-ans, 262.
Licinian laws, 241.
Li-cin'i-us, C, 241.
Li-gu'ri-a, 207.
Ligurians, 209, note.
Li'ris, river, 208.
Literature, Roman, 394, 421.
Liv'i-us, M., consul, 272.
Livy, the historian, 412.
Lon-gi'nus, 356.
Longus, L. Sempronius, 265.
Lu'can, 408, note.
Lu-ca'ni-a, 207.
Luc'ca, 309.
Lu-cil'i-us, poet, 401.
Lu-cre'ti-us, 402.
Lu-cul'lus, the consul, 303,
Lu'si-ta'ni-a, 299.

M.

Ma-cri'nus, Roman emperor, 354,
Mag-ne'si-a, battle of, 276.
Magyars (mod'yors), 375, note,
Ma-har'bal, 269.
Mam'er-tines, 250, note.
Manlius, 239, 240.
Mar-cel'lus, Marcus C, 270.
Mar-cel'lus, nephew of Augustus,

328.
Ma'ri-us, Ga'i-us, 289, 291, 293-

296.
Mars, 217.
Marsic War, 291.

Martial, 408.

Mas'i-nis'sa, king of Numidia, 279.

Max-en'ti-us, 393.

Max-im'i-an, emperor, 357, 358,

359.
Max'i-min, 355.
Mes-sa'na, 250, note.
Me-tau'rus, battle of the, 272.
Military roads, R^oman, 384, 388.
Military tribunes, 234.
Minerva, 217.
Min-tur'nse, 294.
Mi-nu'ci-us, co-dictator with Fabius,

267,
Mith'ra-da'tes the Great, 293, 296,

303-
Mu'ci-us Scaev'o-la, 226.
Mum'mi-us, consul, 277.
Mun'da, battle of, 314, note.
My'lse, naval battle near, 252.

N.
Nse'vi-us, 399.

Ne-pos, Cornelius, 411, note.
Nero, G. Claudius, consul, 273.
Nero, Roman emperor, 335, 337.
Nerva, Roman emperor, 341.
Ni-9a£'a, 360.
No'men-cla'tor, 426.
Nu-man'ti-a, 281.
Nu'ma, 212.
Nu'mi-tor, 223, 224.

o.

Oc-ta'vi-us, 319 ; enters Second
Triumvirate, 319; divides the
world with Antony, 320 ; defeats
Antony at battle of Actium, 322 ;
reign of, 325, 329.

Od'e-na'tus, 356,

Od'o-va'ker, 377, 378.

Op'ti-mates, 286.

o

442

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABUIARY.

Oracles, 218.

O-res'tes, 377.

Or'i-gen, 417.

Os'tro-goths, 365.

O'tho, Roman emperor, 337.

Ov'id, 406.

Pal'a-tine (tin), 214.

Palmyra, 356.

Pandects, 420.

Pa-nor'mus, battle of, 254.

Pan'the-on, the, 381.

Pa-pin'i-an, 353, 419.

Parthians, 310.

Patricians, 210, 211.

Paulus, Roman jurist, 419.

Paulus Lucius ^-mil'i-us, 268, note.

Per'ga-mus, 277.

Per'seus, king of Macedonia, 277.

Per'si-us, 408.

Per'ti-nax, Roman emperor, 352.

Phse'drus, 417.

Phar'na-ces, 304, 3 1 4.

Phar'sa-lus, battle of, 313.

Philip, Roman emperor, 355.

Phi-lip'pi, battle of, 320.

Pi-ce'num, 207.

Pictor, Fabius, 410, note.

Picts, 373.

Pirates, defeated by Pompey, 302.

Pis-to'ri-a, 305.

Pla-cen'ti-a, 260.

Plau'tus, 4CX).

Plebeians (ple-be'yans), 211 ; first

secession of, 228 ; admitted to

the consulship, 240.
Pliny the Elder, 414 ; the Younger,

343-
Poe'ni, 250, note.
Pol'y-carp, 347.
Pompeii (pom-pa'yee), 340, note,

Pompey the Great, in Spain, 299 ;
defeats gladiators, 300 ; defeats
pirates, 302 ; conducts the Mith-
radatic war, 303 ; conquers Syria,
303 ; his triumph, 304 ; enters
the triumvirate, 307 : receives the
government of Spain, 310 ; seeks
popularity, 310 j flees before
C^^sar into Greece, 312 ; defeated
at Pharsalus, 313 ; his death, 313.

Pompey, Gnse'us, 314, note.
Sextus, 314, note.

Pom-po'ni-us, Roman jurist, 419.

Pontiffs, college of, at Rome, 219.

Pon'tine marshes, 316.

Por-sen'na, king of Clusium, 225,
226.

Por'tus Ro-ma'nus, 335.

Posilippo (p6-se-lep'p5), grotto of
the, 386.

Prse-to'ri-an guard, formation of,
329 ; disbanded by Severus, 352.

Pro-per'ti-us, 407.

Province, first Roman, 258.

Public lands in Italy, 284.

Punic War, first, 248, 257.

second, 262, 274.
third, 279, 280.

Pu-te'o-li, 298.

Pyd'na, battle of, 277.

Pyr'rhus, 244, 246.

Q-

Quaestor (kwes'tor), office of, 227,

note.
Quin-til'i-an, the rhetorician, 416.

R.

Rad-a-gai'sus, 369.
Ram'nes, 210.

Reg'u-lus, Atilius, 253, 255.
Religion, Roman, 216, 222.

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

443

Re'mus, 223, 224.

Rhe'a Syl'vi-a, 223.

Rhe'gi-um, 250, note.

Rhe'nus, river, 319.

Roman Empire, extent of, under
Augustus, 326 ; sale of, 352 ;
final division of, 366 ; Eastern,
367 ; closing history of Western,

367, 378.

Rome, location of, 210 ; founding
of, 210 ; hills of, 210; causes of
rapid growth, 212, note; classes
of society during regal period,
211; early government, 210 ;
kings of, 212 ; sacked by the
Gauls, 237 ; population of, 327 ;
last triumph at, 368 ; ransom of,
370; sack of, by Alaric, 371 ;
sack of, by the Vandals, 376.

Rom'u-lus, 223, 224.

Ros'trum, Roman, 213, note.

Ru'bi-con, Caesar crosses, 311.

Rutulian, 213.

S.

Sabines, 224.

Sa-gun'tum, 261.

Sal'lust, 411.

Sa-lo'na, 359.

Samnite War, first, 241.
second, 244.
third, 244.

Sam'ni-um, 207.

Sa'por, king of Persia, 355, note.

Sar-din'i-a, 258.

Sat'ur-na'li-a, 222, note.

Saxons, 363.

Scipio ^'mll-i-a'nus (Africanus Mi-
nor), 282.
Asiaticus, 276, 277.
Publius Cornelius (Africanus
Major), 272, 273, 274, 278.

Se-ja'nus, 332.

Sen'e-ca, 337, 414.

Sen-ti'num, battle at, 244.

Ser-to'ri-us, 299.

Servile wars in Sicily, 283, 284, note.

Ser'vi-us Tul'li-us, 212, 215.

Se-ve'nis, Alexander, 354.
Sep-tim'i-us, 352.

Shiraz (she'raz), 355, note.

Sib'yl-line books, 219.

Sicily, island of, 208.

Sil'a-rus, defeat of gladiators at, 300.

Slavery, Roman, 211, 283, 427.

Social life among the Romans, 422-
427.

Social war in Italy, 291.

So'ci-i, relations to Roman govern-
ment, 291, note.

Spain, civil war in, 299.

Spar'ta-cus, 299.

Sta'ti-us, 408, note.

Stil'i-cho, 367, 368, 369, 370.

Sue-to'ni-us, 341.

Sue'vi, 373.

Sulla, fights under Marius in Africa,
289 ; secures command of Mithra-
datic expedition, 293 ; brings war
to a close, 296 ; return to Rome,
297 ; his proscriptions, 297 ; his
death, 298.

Sul-pic'i-us, Publius, orator, 409.

Su'o-ve-tau-ril'i-a, 221.

Syr'a-cuse, 270.

T.

Tac'i-tus, the historian, 412.

Tad'mor (see Palmyra).

Ta-ren'tum, 244, 246.

Tar-pe'i-an Rock, 240, note.

Tar-quin'i-us Pris'cus, 212.

Su-perT)us, 212, 216.

Tel'a-mon, battle near, 260.

444

INDEX AND PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY.

Te-lem'a-chus, monk, 369.

Ter'ence, 400.

Teu'to-nes, defeated by Marius, 289,

290.
Thap'sus, battle of, 314.
Theatres, Roman, 381.
The-od'o-ric the Visigoth, 374.
The'o-do'si-us the Great, 366.
Ther'mse, Roman, 390.
Thirty Tyrants, Age of the, 355.
Ti-be'ri-us, Roman emperor, 329-

333-
Ti-bul'kis, 407.
Ti-ci'nus, battle of the, 265.
Ti'tus, captures Jerusalem, 338 ;

reign of, 339 ; Arch of, 393.
Ti'tus Ta'ti-us, 225.
Tiv'o-li, 391.

Trajan, Roman emperor, 341.
Tras-i-me'nus, Lake, battle of, 265.
Tre'bi-a, battle of, 265.
Tri-bo'ni-an, Roman jurist, 420.
Tribunes, Roman, 229.
Tri-um'vi-rate, First, 307 ; renewed,

309 ; Second, 318.
Truceless war, 260.
Tul'lus Hos-til'i-us, 212.
Twelve tables of Roman law, 232.

Ul'pi-an, 419.
Um'bri-a, 207.
Utica, 280.

u.

V.

Va'lens, Roman emperor, 363, 364,

366.
Val'en-tin'i-an, Roman emperor,

363. 364-

Va-le'ri-an, Roman emperor, 355,

note.
Va-le'ri-us, Pub'li-us, 228.
Van'dals, 373, 376.
Var'ro, 413.
Varro, Gaius Te-ren'ti-us, consul,

268, note.
Va'rus, defeated by Hermann, 328.
Veil (ve'yi), seige of, 236.
Ven'e-ti, 308.
Ve-ne'ti-a, 207.
Ver-cel'lae, battle of, 291.
Ver'cin-get'o-rix, 309.
Ver'res, abuses of, 301.
Vespasian (vespa'zhi-an), Roman

emperor, 337-339.
Ves'ta, temple of, 214 ; worship of,

218.
Villas, Roman, 391.
Vin'do-bo'na, 348.
Virginia, 234.
Virgil, 403-407.
Vir'i-a'thus, 282.
Vis'i-goths, 364.

Vi-tel'li-us, Roman emperor, 337.
Volscians, 231.

W.

Women, social position of, among
the Romans, 422.

X.

Xan-thip'pus, 253, note.

Z.

Za'ma, battle of, 273.
Ze'la, battle of, 314.
Ze-no'bi-a, 356.

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